"We'll see ya"

Publisher's Note: I started writing this June 25, 2012 and abandoned it for reasons I can't yet explain. There's a bunch of interesting thoughts tumbling around in the "drafts" part of this site and at some point, they will see the light of day. On to the blog ...

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"We'll see ya later."

If you know me, you know I'm prone to say that particular phrase as I bid farewell.

It has been the source of friendly ridicule, especially for my colleagues at The Collegian. See, I say it usually whether I'm along or in a group or if I'm alone. For a while now, it has probably been my most common farewell phrase. Now, it's more of a habit than anything.

Grammatically, it would be inaccurate to say "we'll" when there's only one person in my party but I do it anyway. As someone who gets irked when someone misuses "to, too and two" or "their, there and they're," I do understand the problem here.

So, why or how did I start saying it?

I closely recognized that my grandparents -- one set that lives near Le Center and the other that lives in Luverne, Minn., both say "we'll see ya." That leads me to believe this has been passed down through generations. Now, I have no idea if that's actually possible but it sounds feasible. And I think my parents have probably said it before, although with all of their wisdom they've passed through the years, "we'll see ya" could have been lost in the shuffle.

Minnesota is a battleground state in the great supper/dinner debate.

I was hoping the folks in the Linguistics department at North Carolina State would take up my question among the more than 120 they surveyed about but alas, it wasn't meant to be. It didn't resolve the endless supper/dinner debate at the Sports Lounge either. (For me, lunch is the noon meal; supper is the evening meal; dinner is more formal meal, like Easter or Thanksgiving.) (Sidenote: They actually asked how people say the word "especially?" I swear there were 15 people in my class in high school who said "expecially" and while the map didn't really bear it out, I think Le Center High School was the epicenter of morons saying "expecially.")

I like to think I have a folksy way of talking. For starters, I use the term "folks" when talking about a group of people. I got into a feverish debate about a "hot dish" and "casserole" in my first year at SDSU, where it appears my current state is a battle line between the two terms for a warm meal from the oven. (FWIW, it's tater tot hot dish and I'll go to my grave saying it that way.) While I know it's wrong, I know I've pronounced milk as being "melk" before. And I'm sure my friends and family that read this will have a bunch to point out as well.

Either way, it's light-hearted fun. This is just sort of engrained in who I am and I don't think it's going to change soon. But we'll see, right?