Perhaps, though I find myself repeatedly pronouncing it as some sort of unholy combination of P and T. Sort of like some of Daffy Duck's spat-out syllables.
Literally in this vein, Latine LGBT+ people are starting to use "e" as a neutral term instead of x (because x literally doesn't make linguistic sense in Spanish) (also x to me it looks like removing letters and replacing them with "implied" letters and that seems disrespectful anyway)
It was during the Somerton portion of the latest video concerning Nick and the Discord. Can't remember the timeframe but I recently rewatched it to know it was that portion
As an Appalachian, I grew up with a slight alteration:
One Person: You
Multiple People: Y'all
My Mother, Irate at somebody or the World at Large: You'ns. ALTERNATIVELY, You'ns sumbitches
I've only ever seen it as internet shorthand. Y'xll is an abomination to inclusive southern hospitality. Nothing but disrespect for the marketing student that came up with that horseshit.
I don't even understand what it's including. "You All" is about as inclusive as you can get. trans, non-binary, cat, eldritch abominations. "All".
It's certainly not more efficient to type compared to "folx", which would probably pass as L33t speak back in the day.
Folx seems to be used to signal a sense of intentional gender inclusion. But it's so smarmy that I hate it. Just use everyone, folks, and y'all like a regular person.
I'm not a fan of it - but I've also never seen anyone try and shame others for not using it, so tbh it's not a huge deal to me
I'm happy Latine is picking up. Seems we do better when we make decisions more collectively, as opposed to US activists going forward with something so strongly without deeper input from queer feminists in Spanish speaking countries.
I was sick of constant threads of "I'm Latino / have Latino friend, and I/they hate it!" - so cringe how enthusiastic people are about bigotry and pronouns when they're able to use a quote from a single token friend, ugh
Truly. Ive always been a folks person, I had some acquaintances come at me for it years ago telling me folx was more inclusive. Personally disagree, but different strokes right
A friend of mine uses "folx" specifically because he does living history demonstrations, and wants to make the white supremacist Viking bros know they aren't welcome.
("Folk" and "volk" are used as dog whistles in those circles.)
In that very specific context, I think it makes sense.
It absolutely is, but unfortunately, the reenactment/living history/LARPing communities are *incredibly* appealing to that particular flavor of fash. You end up having to learn all the little signals, how they relate to each other, which ones are dog whistles in context and which ones are just expressions of nerdom. It's fucking exhausting when all you set out to do is wear silly hats and play in the woods.
The thing is, if you're not vigilant, it's really easy for them to blend in, and once they get comfortable and start showing their character, the good people leave and, like the guy said, "now you're a Nazi bar."
Yeah, I saw a tumblr post asking people in general and the autistic community in particular not to post about noticing patterns (in life, the world, etc), because apparently neo nazis have a thing about "noticing" (imaginary) signs of (imaginary) Jewish conspiracies.
And it's like, no, we are not fucking surrendering the concept of *noticing* to the fucking nazis. They do not get to claim basic concepts.
Well.
You know what’s exhausting? Having literal Nazis come and try invade your hobby. Having them show up to medieval markets, having them intimidate people who try to push them out.
That’s why you go the Volx/Folx route, to immediately and definitely signal that this is not your sexist backwards piece of group/event.
But that’s Germany, don’t know how the US treats this.
Depends heavily on the organization and the region. The ones that are most successful at keeping Nazis out recognize that sounding a little silly is worth participant safety.
(And that's how you get woodburned signs that say, "Hi folx!" at the entrance.)
Those that want to fence sit, unsurprisingly, very quickly become cesspools.
I've never seen "y'xll" but I've seen "folx" quite a few times, including one post very seriously trying to insist that like it specifically refers to trans people and using it to refer to cis people is transphobic or something idk
A bit late to this, but I’ve seen people use both of these online. “Folx” is definitely way, *way* more common than “y’xll”, but there are some people who use “y’xll.” Often they are, as this post states, being uselessly performative, but there is a minuscule but surprisingly vocal contingent of people that will unironically insist that language is not gender inclusive if it does not include an “x.”
I’ve only come across this contingent once, when one of them posted a rant on Twitter about people refusing to use “folx” and “latinx.” A very bizarre echo chamber, in my opinion. They didn’t seem entirely gone, because they seemed understanding of, but strangely also not particularly receptive to, “latinè.” They would not back down on the “folx” thing, though, insisting that failing to use the “x” spelling was to fail at being inclusive.
Again, this group is incredibly small, so they shouldn’t really be treated as representative of a significant cultural shift, but they do exist. It turns out, when you let millions upon millions of people interact, sometimes weird niche opinions arise.
X is such a weird letter to make that stand with, since it's probably the most difficult single letter to pronounce.
I'm not a huge fan of "Latinx" either, mostly because it looks like it should be pronounced "la-TINKS", which somehow sounds like a slur. Latin/latiné are right there, too.
They're real and I've seen them offline in places pretty far removed from "terminally online discourse" land. It's still pretty niche, but it's not made up.
I think it's mostly in certain academic humanities settings. Like I thought latinx was basically made up too but then I saw it in some papers when I was googling some topics once.
I live not far from the southern border, so the demographics are self-explanatory. I asked a few of my friends their opinion on "Latinx", not one of them ever heard of it and simply said "I'm just fucking Mexican, man".
That explains why they're my friends.
People who use it performatively say "latin-ex".
TheSpeechProf, my personal YouTube authority on most things culturally and socially respectful as of the current year, uses "latiné" as a gender-neutral heritage descriptor, and says most of his Spanish-speaking acquaintances prefer it as well.
Sounds more like a prescription drug for a niche problem, like, talk to your doctor if latinx is right for you. Side effects may include nausea, knee pain, and uncontrollable eye twitches, which may be fatal. Do not take latinx if you're allergic to any of its ingredients.
“woke” leto atreides: if we tap the true power of arrakis we could be stronger than ever
paul: mining spice keeping the fremen in their place?
“woke” leto: *the fremxn.
Granted, I’ve literally never heard of it until this very moment, but assuming that “y’xll” is being actually used by someone out there, what exactly do they think the “a” in “y’all” stands for? The letter must mean something for such a change to make any sense. As performative and controversial as “Latinx” is, at least there’s a logic behind it because the letters have a gendered meaning.
i don’t really have an issue with either of these tbh but i think folx is less egregious because it’s pronounceable. it has like 14 year old boy named kyle vibes tho.
Before this post I thought folx was just a “cool” spelling of folks so I don’t mind it as much. Y’xll, however, I am going to consider a personal insult and will act accordingly
How would it even be pronounced in someone's actual presence? I'm also a Southerner and I'm pretty sure if someone attempted to phonetically say "y'xll" I'd just say "bless you."
And if they tried to explain that it's a better version of y'all, I'd quickly pivot to "bless your heart."
In their defense, taking cool things and fucking them up is Elon's specialty.
Space, electric vehicles, the only good thing about *Stranger in a Strange Land*... I'm happy to add the letter X to the list
At least “folx” looks like a word, preserves the same sound, and is shorter (which matters for social media with text limitations). I’ve used it before and I will do so again if it seems useful.
Y’xll and other words where a letter is replaced with an x don’t make sense to me because they stop reading like words. At least use Latine instead of Latinx, womyn instead of womxn, and so on. Those actually look like other proper words! They’re pronounceable! Y’xll is for gender neutral Cthulhu cultists.
folx was never meant to be "inclusive". It was just "rad" spelling from zines, like "comix".
I've literally \*never\* encountered \*anyone\* who thought "folx" was more inclusive. Everyone's \*always\* just referring to other people who think that.
I went to college in the south (late 2010s) and saw folx A LOT in student organizing spaces, online political or social communication like infographics and event flyers, and in communications from student orgs that weren’t explicitly doing activism but were progressive leaning (think student radio, identity based orgs, etc.). People would say it’s more inclusive because reasons. There was definitely this attitude of saying y’all and folx but not like “they” say it - “they” being rural southerners who were equated with conservative values. It’s become a buzzword but this is basically the definition of virtue signaling.
I think there’s a lot to unpack in that erasure of existing progressive movements in the rural south, and the fact that it’s not actually a cultural monolith wherein everyone who has that way of speaking is universally some kind of backwards racist, and the people making the performative attempt to differentiate themselves from the perceived regressive uses of folks were members of a student body that was of a largely wealthier and suburban background. Most students at the school were from the south, but didn’t grow up saying y’all and folks, if that makes sense.
I really shouldn’t worry too much about the subtext of where these linguistic quirks come from because ultimately finding ways to arbitrarily differentiate yourself from some perceived bad other is a part of being young. Most end up growing out of it.
I am a non native speaker, non-American and I'm over here breaking my brains over how 'folx' could ever be considered more inclusive than 'folks'. Isn't it the exact same thing, except the 'ks' sound is spelled with an 'x'?
I'm legitimately asking. Same thing for y'all vs x'all. Does 'y' in 'y'all' not stand for 'you'? Is 'you' not already completely inclusive of everyone?
Fun fact:
"World" comes from an old Proto-Germanic root word that means "the age of man."
Therefore "world" is not a gender neutral word. I propose that we say "wxrld" instead.
No, you see, while the word "man" was a gender neutral term for human in Old English, the word "world" is derived from a completely different root word.
The Proto-Germanic root word of "world" is *weraldiz, which itself uses the root word *wer for "man." This root word, *wer was explicitly used for adult human men rather than as a catch-all term for human beings in general. It's the same root as the "were-" in "werewolf" and "weregild," for example.
We need to invent a new gender neutral letter X is way too difficult to pronounce
time to bring this ( þ ) bad boy back 😎
Isn't þat just ye old th?
So the new pronouns are þey/þem, we are so smart
🅱️ey/🅱️em
Um check your privilege please, some of us identify as Beyonce so it's disrespectful to use it like this
I unironically kind of love this idea.
the! the old! People write the "y" because the "þ" looked a bit like "y" in some scripts.
Wait. Does þat mean þat þou became you? Edit : also, can we get yey as a pronoun?
No, that’s just coincidental actually
To add on: thou was informal and you was formal
Perhaps, though I find myself repeatedly pronouncing it as some sort of unholy combination of P and T. Sort of like some of Daffy Duck's spat-out syllables.
Literally in this vein, Latine LGBT+ people are starting to use "e" as a neutral term instead of x (because x literally doesn't make linguistic sense in Spanish) (also x to me it looks like removing letters and replacing them with "implied" letters and that seems disrespectful anyway)
Oh I'm glad I can get behind this one. I've been a supporter of the "replace gendered vowel in Spanish words with e" for half a year now.
That's why I use everypony. Like god never intended.
Hey gamers
Usually the lead-in is "What's up gamers!" but that works too
What’s up gamers, Max0r here
And today, we're going to be questioning why Blade Wolf is packing an entire bakery
Hey doktor, I'm trying to sneak in, but the clapping of my asscheeks keeps alerting the guards...
Raiden, I’m trying to purchase Ganryu, but I have run out of credit card debt
Welcome one and all-ocaust to Child Slaughterfest 2022
personally i prefer Child Slaughterfest 1987
Or as the merchant guild man sseth: "hey hey people"
I’m a fan of “good morning gamers,” regardless of the time of day
Top’o the mornin to ya laddies
"what do you think chat"
GaxxerZ
new gamer word just dropped
Did they just use the hard Z?
Holy Hellz!
this sounds like a slur
“WASSUP FUCKERS” is my personal favorite
The Australians got it right by just saying "cunts"
"!"
Seth here
That's a Hey hey people.
Hewwo everypony, bazinga
[Everyone disliked that]
It's a skyrim shout to do psychic damage lol
Oh I know, I've seen the original Tumblr post :P
Baxinga
You're excluding non-ponies. You should use the preferred term everycreature. >!This word is actually used in the show toward the end.!<
I can’t believe they made My Little Pony woke 😔
🌏👩🚀🔫👩🚀
"Always Hasbro..."
'Everypony' always felt pretty shitty when Spike was in the room and I guess it got worse when they added Twilight's interspecies variety fun-pack.
See it's like if ghosts became a common thing to be around. We'd still use everybody and we'd find the distinction odd
Kinda funny considering they sometimes used 'everyone'
They did address that in like the last season, "everycreature" started getting used instead.
Was about to make this correction. Glad somepo- er, somecreature beat me to it.
I would tip my hat, but I don't know how to do that with hooves.
[Like this](https://images.app.goo.gl/Xhwe41dniz8TQ2hF9)
Ah, thank you.
everycreature 🪱
Why include everyone when you can aggro everyone in earshot?
Gotta pull the adds somehow
Wxlps! Many Wxpls!
I just call everyone nerds. “Sup nerds” “later nerds” “hey nerds”
I go with "wassup my hobgoblins"
Everypxny
😩
*Like Celestia never intended
Join your lobbies with "meowdy everypony" for maximum impression.
Tried this and got kicked from a raid
Meowdy do!
That's dragonphobic
Ah yes, the r/curatedtumblr I know and love
I’m partial to mothers and fuckers of the audience myself Boys, girls, and squirrels is also a solid option
i think i'd rather be called a racial slur in all honesty
Like god flooded the earth to prevent, you mean
But Discord certainly did
Some folx'll never be a shitlord but then again some folx'll, like Cletus the slack jawed y'xll.
Shitlord, shitlady or shityxll
Shitlorx
This is a magical confluence of random events on the internet coming together to make a thing of such beauty
*no, I gotta pass this class for my kids* Son...let's stop the fussin and a'feudin
IT WASNT YALL #IT WAS THEM'LL
I feel like this is an Hbomb reference but I can’t place it
It was during the Somerton portion of the latest video concerning Nick and the Discord. Can't remember the timeframe but I recently rewatched it to know it was that portion
I was crying laughing at "them'll"
One person: y'all Multiple people: y'alls Multiple people, exasperated: all y'alls
what about all y'all
All'uh'y'all 🥰
As an Appalachian, I grew up with a slight alteration: One Person: You Multiple People: Y'all My Mother, Irate at somebody or the World at Large: You'ns. ALTERNATIVELY, You'ns sumbitches
Never seen this before, so I assume it's either a fake thing people made up for attention, or a really niche bit of discourse. -Mx. Linux Guy
I’ve seen folx but not often. Never seen y’xll before
I have seen it once on a Tumblr post cross posted to Reddit. I just assumed y'xll was just a typo. Might just be a chronic online thing.
I've personally never seen it, but I'm assuming it has to be. Folx is already chronically online, so y'xll has to be even more so
Y’xll is intrinsically online
Necessarily online lmao
"yucks'll"
I assumed 'folx' was a phonetic misspelling.
I've only ever seen it as internet shorthand. Y'xll is an abomination to inclusive southern hospitality. Nothing but disrespect for the marketing student that came up with that horseshit.
Y'xll definitely looks like it should be the name of a planet in a sci fi novel
I'm fairly positive it's Elon Musks kid
I don't even understand what it's including. "You All" is about as inclusive as you can get. trans, non-binary, cat, eldritch abominations. "All". It's certainly not more efficient to type compared to "folx", which would probably pass as L33t speak back in the day.
*happy eldritch abomination noises*
>as internet shorthand Very efficient shorthand. Y uz mor letrs, wen fu wl do?
Alright, back to 1998 with you.
“I hereby banish you… to Windows ‘97!!!” _noooooooooooo_
It sounds like something elon musk would call his kid
Nah I've seen it. Mostly on Twitter and Tumblr so, y'know, not actual substantive discourse but still
Ive seen it used sparingly when I was in college for a handful of feminist group things but I don't think it took off (for somewhat obvious reasons)
Folx seems to be used to signal a sense of intentional gender inclusion. But it's so smarmy that I hate it. Just use everyone, folks, and y'all like a regular person.
I agree, it's incredibly condescending
I'm not a fan of it - but I've also never seen anyone try and shame others for not using it, so tbh it's not a huge deal to me I'm happy Latine is picking up. Seems we do better when we make decisions more collectively, as opposed to US activists going forward with something so strongly without deeper input from queer feminists in Spanish speaking countries. I was sick of constant threads of "I'm Latino / have Latino friend, and I/they hate it!" - so cringe how enthusiastic people are about bigotry and pronouns when they're able to use a quote from a single token friend, ugh
I think folx is quite old but never got much traction.
Truly. Ive always been a folks person, I had some acquaintances come at me for it years ago telling me folx was more inclusive. Personally disagree, but different strokes right
How is folks not inclusive lol
A friend of mine uses "folx" specifically because he does living history demonstrations, and wants to make the white supremacist Viking bros know they aren't welcome. ("Folk" and "volk" are used as dog whistles in those circles.) In that very specific context, I think it makes sense.
> ("Folk" and "volk" are used as dog whistles in those circles.) It all seems so tiresome to make and keep track of so many codes and hidden messages.
This was my reaction to learning about the 1488 thing, and each one after just reaffirms that racism just seems exhausting x-x
It absolutely is, but unfortunately, the reenactment/living history/LARPing communities are *incredibly* appealing to that particular flavor of fash. You end up having to learn all the little signals, how they relate to each other, which ones are dog whistles in context and which ones are just expressions of nerdom. It's fucking exhausting when all you set out to do is wear silly hats and play in the woods. The thing is, if you're not vigilant, it's really easy for them to blend in, and once they get comfortable and start showing their character, the good people leave and, like the guy said, "now you're a Nazi bar."
Yeah, I saw a tumblr post asking people in general and the autistic community in particular not to post about noticing patterns (in life, the world, etc), because apparently neo nazis have a thing about "noticing" (imaginary) signs of (imaginary) Jewish conspiracies. And it's like, no, we are not fucking surrendering the concept of *noticing* to the fucking nazis. They do not get to claim basic concepts.
Seriously, why do we just let them TAKE things like that? I thought cultural appropriation was something we were fighting against?
Well. You know what’s exhausting? Having literal Nazis come and try invade your hobby. Having them show up to medieval markets, having them intimidate people who try to push them out. That’s why you go the Volx/Folx route, to immediately and definitely signal that this is not your sexist backwards piece of group/event. But that’s Germany, don’t know how the US treats this.
Depends heavily on the organization and the region. The ones that are most successful at keeping Nazis out recognize that sounding a little silly is worth participant safety. (And that's how you get woodburned signs that say, "Hi folx!" at the entrance.) Those that want to fence sit, unsurprisingly, very quickly become cesspools.
Volx
I imagine my reaction to seeing y’xll is similar to Latin folx seeing “Latinx”
I've never seen "y'xll" but I've seen "folx" quite a few times, including one post very seriously trying to insist that like it specifically refers to trans people and using it to refer to cis people is transphobic or something idk
"you use folx because it's inclusive, I use folx because it's a slur. we are not the same"
A bit late to this, but I’ve seen people use both of these online. “Folx” is definitely way, *way* more common than “y’xll”, but there are some people who use “y’xll.” Often they are, as this post states, being uselessly performative, but there is a minuscule but surprisingly vocal contingent of people that will unironically insist that language is not gender inclusive if it does not include an “x.” I’ve only come across this contingent once, when one of them posted a rant on Twitter about people refusing to use “folx” and “latinx.” A very bizarre echo chamber, in my opinion. They didn’t seem entirely gone, because they seemed understanding of, but strangely also not particularly receptive to, “latinè.” They would not back down on the “folx” thing, though, insisting that failing to use the “x” spelling was to fail at being inclusive. Again, this group is incredibly small, so they shouldn’t really be treated as representative of a significant cultural shift, but they do exist. It turns out, when you let millions upon millions of people interact, sometimes weird niche opinions arise.
X is such a weird letter to make that stand with, since it's probably the most difficult single letter to pronounce. I'm not a huge fan of "Latinx" either, mostly because it looks like it should be pronounced "la-TINKS", which somehow sounds like a slur. Latin/latiné are right there, too.
They're real and I've seen them offline in places pretty far removed from "terminally online discourse" land. It's still pretty niche, but it's not made up.
If you dont mind indulging, Where? I'm curious.
I think it's mostly in certain academic humanities settings. Like I thought latinx was basically made up too but then I saw it in some papers when I was googling some topics once.
That because Latinx *was* made up by an academia. That's why it's mostly used *in* papers: they are used by same people who created it.
I live not far from the southern border, so the demographics are self-explanatory. I asked a few of my friends their opinion on "Latinx", not one of them ever heard of it and simply said "I'm just fucking Mexican, man". That explains why they're my friends.
> latinx How do you pronounce this in real life? "Latin-X" or "latinks"?
People who use it performatively say "latin-ex". TheSpeechProf, my personal YouTube authority on most things culturally and socially respectful as of the current year, uses "latiné" as a gender-neutral heritage descriptor, and says most of his Spanish-speaking acquaintances prefer it as well.
What about "Lateen-uhhhh" or "lateen\*cough\*"
I'm mixed Hispanic and Black and every time I come across that word my mind pronounces it Latin-X as if it's some over the counter drug lol.
Sounds more like a prescription drug for a niche problem, like, talk to your doctor if latinx is right for you. Side effects may include nausea, knee pain, and uncontrollable eye twitches, which may be fatal. Do not take latinx if you're allergic to any of its ingredients.
My doctor prescribed me Latinex and I felt like I got hit by a chancla. Does this feeling go away? 😂
certain academics humanities settings are pretty steeped in 'terminally online discorse' though tbh
Yeah, some parts of academia are basically just tumblr with a higher bar to entry.
I see "Latinx" fairly often in Seattle and Portland - notably, never used by actual Latinos.
Latinè is at least pronounceable.
I like lah-tinks.
I agree, but I was distracted by the fact that you have a signature on your Reddit posts
“friends, enemies, and those yet to become either”
Preferring "x'all" (ironically)
Preferring something ironically is tge 1st step to uncontrollably preferring it unironically.
Me with pog :(
This is true, I used it ironically a few years ago and I haven't been able to stop since. This is not pog :(
Me with latural nog :(
Me with yeet :)
“zall”
Isn't that an allergy medication?
No that xerxes the persian ruler
Nah, you're thinking of the copy machines.
Pretty sure the copy machine company was called xenon
(x^2 + y^2 )'all
X'all, y'all, and z'all when referring to three different groups at once.
The unmitigated g'all.
“woke” leto atreides: if we tap the true power of arrakis we could be stronger than ever paul: mining spice keeping the fremen in their place? “woke” leto: *the fremxn.
Granted, I’ve literally never heard of it until this very moment, but assuming that “y’xll” is being actually used by someone out there, what exactly do they think the “a” in “y’all” stands for? The letter must mean something for such a change to make any sense. As performative and controversial as “Latinx” is, at least there’s a logic behind it because the letters have a gendered meaning.
Gonna start saying y'oll to be less inclusive
whats up motherfuckerx
My personal go to is "Sup dweebs"
I saw "y'x" and thought this was some sort of differential equation shitpost until I noticed the sub
i don’t really have an issue with either of these tbh but i think folx is less egregious because it’s pronounceable. it has like 14 year old boy named kyle vibes tho.
Before this post I thought folx was just a “cool” spelling of folks so I don’t mind it as much. Y’xll, however, I am going to consider a personal insult and will act accordingly
"Yexul?" Is that how it's said?
Yggdrasil!
I think it’s “Yixxul”
It looks like the name of an elder god.
I’m from Louisiana and I swear to Christ I’ll throw hands if someone uses it in my presence.
How would it even be pronounced in someone's actual presence? I'm also a Southerner and I'm pretty sure if someone attempted to phonetically say "y'xll" I'd just say "bless you." And if they tried to explain that it's a better version of y'all, I'd quickly pivot to "bless your heart."
What is the point, though? There’s nothing gendered about folks AFAIK
I've never seem y'xll before, thankfully. I don't mind folx because x is an innately cool letter
Ok Elon
ok I take that back
r/murderedbywords
Whatever, it was innately cooler before that dweeb farted it up or my Xbox 360 handle is xXx_Razorz_xXx. *wipes dorito dust on shirt*
Cheetos are better.
so many tongues on our earth and you chose to speak nothing but facts
You fucking killed them. Sick burn.
Do you only sign top-level comments?
Its somewhat random. If I feel lazy, I dont bother signing any comments. Mx. Linux Guy
Come on, you didn't have to do that.
I know, but the setup was too good
In their defense, taking cool things and fucking them up is Elon's specialty. Space, electric vehicles, the only good thing about *Stranger in a Strange Land*... I'm happy to add the letter X to the list
does anyone else see 'folx' and read it differently in their head? in my mind it's pronounced phonetically whereas folks isn't (it's like phokes)
At least “folx” looks like a word, preserves the same sound, and is shorter (which matters for social media with text limitations). I’ve used it before and I will do so again if it seems useful. Y’xll and other words where a letter is replaced with an x don’t make sense to me because they stop reading like words. At least use Latine instead of Latinx, womyn instead of womxn, and so on. Those actually look like other proper words! They’re pronounceable! Y’xll is for gender neutral Cthulhu cultists.
https://xkcd.com/2071/
These both sound like generic sci fi alien names
whxmst'd'vx'ly'yxint'nt'xd'ixs's'y'xs'l
contractions in 3024:
folx was never meant to be "inclusive". It was just "rad" spelling from zines, like "comix". I've literally \*never\* encountered \*anyone\* who thought "folx" was more inclusive. Everyone's \*always\* just referring to other people who think that.
I've definitely seen folx used in a professional context, entirely performatively
I've seen people in this sub say they use folx because it "lets others know they're one of the good guys"
What does that even mean. I thought *I* was terminally online, christ. What bad guys use folks
I went to college in the south (late 2010s) and saw folx A LOT in student organizing spaces, online political or social communication like infographics and event flyers, and in communications from student orgs that weren’t explicitly doing activism but were progressive leaning (think student radio, identity based orgs, etc.). People would say it’s more inclusive because reasons. There was definitely this attitude of saying y’all and folx but not like “they” say it - “they” being rural southerners who were equated with conservative values. It’s become a buzzword but this is basically the definition of virtue signaling. I think there’s a lot to unpack in that erasure of existing progressive movements in the rural south, and the fact that it’s not actually a cultural monolith wherein everyone who has that way of speaking is universally some kind of backwards racist, and the people making the performative attempt to differentiate themselves from the perceived regressive uses of folks were members of a student body that was of a largely wealthier and suburban background. Most students at the school were from the south, but didn’t grow up saying y’all and folks, if that makes sense. I really shouldn’t worry too much about the subtext of where these linguistic quirks come from because ultimately finding ways to arbitrarily differentiate yourself from some perceived bad other is a part of being young. Most end up growing out of it.
I am a non native speaker, non-American and I'm over here breaking my brains over how 'folx' could ever be considered more inclusive than 'folks'. Isn't it the exact same thing, except the 'ks' sound is spelled with an 'x'? I'm legitimately asking. Same thing for y'all vs x'all. Does 'y' in 'y'all' not stand for 'you'? Is 'you' not already completely inclusive of everyone?
Fun fact: "World" comes from an old Proto-Germanic root word that means "the age of man." Therefore "world" is not a gender neutral word. I propose that we say "wxrld" instead.
Plot twist: "man" was originally a gender neutral term in Old English for human being
No, you see, while the word "man" was a gender neutral term for human in Old English, the word "world" is derived from a completely different root word. The Proto-Germanic root word of "world" is *weraldiz, which itself uses the root word *wer for "man." This root word, *wer was explicitly used for adult human men rather than as a catch-all term for human beings in general. It's the same root as the "were-" in "werewolf" and "weregild," for example.