Naughty boy Willem, naughty boy:
P.S. For those who have noticed, I am indeed trying out ‘yo’ as a replacement for he/she/it, him, her, and ‘yo’s’ for his/her/its. It’s the only hope for George W. Bush to leave a positive legacy in any area of life.
Tee Hee
January 7th, 2008 · 7 Comments
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7 responses so far ↓
1 sanbikinoraion // Jan 7, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I prefer “hir” for his/hers and “se” for he/she. Good old Wikipedia has a whole page on gender-neutral pronouns:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronouns
2 Kay Tie // Jan 7, 2008 at 1:01 pm
It should be “yos” and not “yo’s” surely?
3 Andrew Paterson // Jan 7, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I thought it had emerged that Bush didn’t in fact say ‘yo Blair’ after all.
4 gene berman // Jan 7, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I don’t know anything about whether GW threw a “yo” in somewhere or not. However, I’m in a good position to discuss the “yo” itself.
It’s an expression that has been characteristic of Philadelphia and immediate environs for as long as I can remember–that’s going back about 65 years. My dad (a Philly native), a person of educated speech and manner (and the top Greek scholar at Penn) indulged occasionally.
It’s a greeting (”Yo, Jack”), a summons (”Yo–who’s for half-ball?”), an exclamation to express surprise, delight, annoyance–virtually all-pupose. Among kids, it was a cultural identifier of sorts when meeting a new kid (or kids)., who, not infrequently, would actually be asked, “Do yous guys say “Yo?” (That’s the Philly regional “yous”–pronounced “youz”–as opposed to the NYC/Brooklyn urban “youse” of identical meaning and comparable, likewise to the rural “you-uns,” the mid-South “you-all,” or the deep-South “y’all.”)
It was a usage that didn’t seem to get far from Philly–even across the river in NJ, until Philly people started moving over in numbers about 50 years ago. I’d guess a certain resurgence and spread is due to the “Rocky” series of movies.
5 JuliaM // Jan 7, 2008 at 5:16 pm
“I prefer “hir” for his/hers and “se” for he/she…”
Did you type that tongue-in-cheek? Because that really isn’t the way human beings converse here on Planet Earth.
6 dearieme // Jan 8, 2008 at 12:13 am
And W is a yo-yo?
7 Chris // Jan 8, 2008 at 3:13 am
In Baltimore police argot, a yo is an idiot. (Cf ‘The Wire’, finest TV drama ever.) So, on the evidence above, is - no, not Dubya - this Willem you quote; and if you think I’m going to follow the link, you must be crazy, yo.
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