in northeast urban areas, if someone uses y’all it means they are probably a left-wing/social justice oriented person. use is correlated with “folks”/“folx”. no idea why, maybe to replace gendered “you guys”. weird but true.
Yep, it also replaces "ladies and gentlemen" and is a more informal "people."
I've heard of the the mythical gender neutral guys but having spent my life in classes and a career field where being the only woman is the standard, the amount of times folks are like "good morning guys… and girl" or "good morning fellas… and lady" is just comical at this point. Clearly speakers aren't imaging a mixed group when they say it.
It's been the same for me in the midwest and northeast.
Maybe it's that they were intending to address a group, but then realised that what they said might cause offence so they corrected themselves.
I think it's not so much they imagined what they were saying before they said it, it's that they reached for the handy phrase for addressing a group without thinking, and then only afterwards realised it. At least that's what I would do.
I wonder what it would feel like if I joined a majority female class and was addressed as "good morning ladies, and man". I've never been in the situation unfortunately.
Another phrase would be good. I vote for youse all.
Except that northeast urban areas are famously rife with transplants from all over the country, including me, who uses "y'all" because y'all don't know what "yinz" means.
