OyVey wrote:Hmm. I guess I'm not good at recognizing different accents. It's surprising though, that you say "y'all". I didn't think that was used in Chicago, which is in the North. Or are you originally from somewhere else?
EDIT: I see, you grew up in Saint Louis. Can you post a link of someone from there speaking? It would be interesting to hear.
It's a real mystery how I ended up with the pin-pen merger. It's not typical of the St Louis area. (If you look at this map, you'll see how the isogloss even dips south to leave it out.) No one else in my family has it.
Y'all is actually used all the time in Chicago since it's a common feature of AAVE. Recently, I've begun hearing it from speakers with no connexion to the South. I think the stigma associated with it is fading and people are beginning to appreciate its usefulness.