I see it in a lot of fics where AJ and AB pops up. And rather than going through any more comment sections and saying the same thing over and over again. I thought I'd save time do it here, and in the fics where they pop up. Hopefully it'll get fixed. I'll even use other ponies comments in those fics as links.

First of all. I'm not going to reply to anything on the Ya, Y'all topic after this post. Or it'll end up with a massive flame war and simply put. I've made my stance on it clear throughout the site. Not going into it.

Now. First off, not usually a problem in L!Verse fics thank goodness.

Ya = You.

Y'all is second person pronoun and a contraction of You all.

Ah = I [I see a lot of fics where the writer says ah, rather than Ah. Since Ah is a strong I [really thick accent] and is always capitalized. So to is Ah. The word ah [lower cased] is used to express a wide range of emotions.]

ma = my [Comment Link]. This pops up so many times. Especially when they mean to say "me". Which can be said by southerners.

yer = your. It's not yar, or y'ar.

ya'll = you will. In a sentence:

ya'll do what Ah say when Ah say it, ya hear me?

or

So ya'll do the dishes this time?

It doesn't have to be in the form of a question. But rather when ever the phrase you will or you'll would be used properly in a sentence.

___________________

So far the biggest problems are with Ah, and ma. And hopefully getting this out there will let the fics where said corrections [that've been sitting for a year. And not just my own. But others [I've seen errors pointed out in fics that are still there over 52 weeks later. in some fics] will finally get fixed up.

And yes this is OCD of me, but it'll help save me time having to go over and Copy X Paste all the errors from here on out, and ruin my immersion of a fic. For problems that more than likely won't get touched up.

So anywho, sorry for the rant / pointing out. But seriously, it's something that's been bugging me since I started re-reading the series.

i swear sometimes it's like these people have never heard a southern accent.

Y'all is second person pronoun and a contraction of You all.

And is used as second person plural, because it is "you all". One would say "Y'all" in referring to more than one person, rather than a single individual. It is a form replacing the archiac "ye," and it's equivalent to the New York dialect "youse."

I would spell "ma" (for "my") with an "h" on the end, thus "Mah vittles."

3741459
As someone who lives in the South, it can be a little jarring to see the accent rendered badly in fic. I'm so accustomed to hearing it out loud that I can usually pick it up when there's something off. Anyway, I pretty much agree with you, except that I'd argue 'you will' could be rendered like normal 'you'll' so it wouldn't be confused with y'all.

And that ma = me thing would drive me crazy. It's rare that anyone says it like that down where I live.

3741499 Unreliable accounts have been known to claim that "Y'all" is in fact singular, and the plural is "All y'all". Anyone else have any experience of that?

3741499

Yep. I usually use mah for my. But I can see people use ma for it instead.

3741532

Yep. I've lived in the south for most of my life [other than a few years in Washington State, Pennsylvania, and a year in the UK [when I was a lot younger]]. And I use you and you'll as well. And you'll does sound better than ya'll.

And I've never lived where the strong I (or Mah / Ma) was used, but I do get that AJ's accent can be on the thick side. So can usually let that slide as a stylistic choice [and I admit to useing that stylistic choice as well to keep her fanon accent intact).

3741558

http://memphis.about.com/od/midsouthliving/qt/yall.htm

http://dialectblog.com/2011/02/15/the-remarkable-history-of-yall/

Hope that helps.

3741475

Or they head it from writers who've never heard it. But think making up one would make their character interesting. Kind of like the Englishman who played the Scottish person on Star Trek. XD.

3741558
Typically, if there's more than three people to the group. I'd say something like "All y'all are coming, right?" if there was a larger number of people. Y'all certainly isn't singular but sometimes people still use it even if there is just one other person. For the sake of simplicity though, I'd leave it as plural strictly for fics, unless the other way flowed better in the specific context.

3741499

and it's equivalent to the New York dialect "youse."

Or "yinz" in the Pittsburgh dialect.

3741657 I'm with you. This is a great article and I'm going to just cite it in the future rather than attempt to correct anyone.

I've lived in the south my whole life. While I've mostly lived in the more urban areas, I've heard all the shades of the southern accent. I scratch my head at the accents some writers put down, I don't know what they are, but they aren't southern. It's like they're channeling Rick Grimes from Walking Dead's "Country" slang.

3741657 3741677 Neat. I've never seen a language or dialect that has multiple versions of plural before. Interesting concept. You learn something new every day. Thanks.

3741734

*Death Shudders* The Walking Dead. All the wrong stereotypes in all the worst places. Although I'll have to say that Rick Grimes was better than some of the stuff I've read. It's more like they channeled whoever invented "Black Face" and decided that they'd do that same atrocity to the southern tongue.

And thanks, you have my full permission (and anyone else does too if they'd like) to link to here if you want to.

3741779

You're welcome .

3741499 Babs Seed has a distinctive Bronx accent, since she's from Manehattan. Brynna Drummond's her voice actress and she does a great New York accent for a city pony like Babs.

Most of the immediate apple family (Granny Smith, Applejack, Apple Bloom, and Big McIntosh) have distinctive southern accents. I wonder if any of the extended family has the same accent thing...would Applaloosans be written any different from say, any Apple family member who comes to visit AJ or to take part in the family reunions?

3741913
I'd guess the Applaloosans would have a mid-west or "Texas" accent, since they come from that analogous area.
3741779
No problem.
3741657
Yeah, I agree on AJ's accent. Her's is fairly strong. And I've traveled a bit, and it's really interesting to see how varied just the southern accent by itself is. I live in a fairly metro area, and the accents typical here are much different than the ones I hear up where my grandma lives in the mountains.

3741966

Same here, and there's even differences in one state just as much as there in different ones. Like Sherman, TX. is different than Mayfield, KT, is different than St. Petersburg,FL, ect. Although I've never heard any as thick as hers.

3742008
Haha, yeah. When I first came to college, you could really see the variety of people just from my state alone due to the varying thicknesses of their accents.
And I heard somewhere, can't remember where, that Ashleigh Ball based her AJ accent initially off of Dolly Parton.

3742024

I heard it was based on somewhere in Louisiana. Although I can't find on Google where it says exactly she based her thing off of.

3742024 I've been to Dollywood, TN, where Dolly Parton has her own family-friendly theme park.

And, Ashleigh Ball's AJ accent is based off of Dolly Parton.

They have the Everfree Radio interviews on Youtube where you can hear the voice cast talk about their auditions and the characters.

Brenda Chrichlow, the voice of Zecora, was supposed to use Swahili, but she developed the Rhyming method that Zecora is known for.

I think Michelle Creber developed her Apple Bloom voice to match that of Ashleigh Ball's Applejack, since her description called for a young country pony who is trying to find her cutie mark.

3742189
That must have been where I heard it from, like, two years ago now? Wow.
And I like that Michelle Creber kinda gave AB her own take on a southern accent, gives her a unique voice over other southern-voiced characters out there.

3741705

Oh hey! Someone else around here from the Pittsburgh area!

On the accent thing though, I've started to more move towards just dropping writing it out, except on the very highest levels. Basically dropping the g and adding an apostrophe on some words, and throwing in an ocassional "ya'll". The sentences get kind of confusing to read the thicker you write out an accent.

I should really go back and change that on some of my fics, but I'm far too lazy right now.

3743194
Actually, I live in Texas. I was only in Pittsburgh for college. (I went to CMU.)

And I'm with you on the minimalist approach to writing AJ's accent. In addition to -ing => -in' and you (plural) => y'all, about the only changes I've made in the AJ lines I've written so far are just => jest. I don't even do the I => Ah thing...

3742189
I'm just glad Ashleigh Ball didn't base AJ's accent on Paula Deen.