american-englishslang
So I'm reading a book set in the American South in the beginning of the 1900 and I stumble upon the use of the verb is with you ("you is", "is you?") in conversations: eg. "is you Samson Fuller?". I've heard this in rap songs before, but this usage made me wonder how it came about. Could someone give any insight into this? History, usage today?
(The writer also adds an s to some verbs, eg. "I doubts that", "I sees", etc. What's with that?)
Kvell is from Yiddish and means
To feel delighted and proud to the point of tears
Merriam-Webster gives an example of "kvell over" similar to yours:
Critics kvelled over the violinist's triumphant return to the stage where she had made her debut many years ago.
You can see that in writing, alternatives like these are much more common than kvell:
Ngram of kvell, acclaim, rejoice, admire, celebrate, appreciate; kvell has flatlined here
Not all of these words can be used with over, so if the sense of delighting in a particular work is important, have a look at further synonyms. If you're looking for slang, there are plenty of options for an informal context; for example, perhaps you groove on a piece of music or get a kick out of a painter's unique style.
Wikipedia has an article on hella:
Hella is a word associated with Northern California used throughout the United States and Canada. It is a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]". It often appears in place of the words "really," "a lot," "totally," "very," and in some cases, "yes." Whereas hell of a is generally used with a noun, according to linguist Pamela Munro, hella is primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good."
[...]
While intensifiers similar to hella exist in many colloquial varieties, hella is unique in its flexibility. It can be used to modify almost any part of speech, as shown below.
That pizza was hella good: hella modifies the adjective good, where Standard American English would use very.
I ate hella pizza: hella modifies the noun pizza, replacing a lot of.
I hella bought four pizzas: hella modifies the verb to buy, replacing really or totally.
I ran hella quickly to the pizza joint when I heard about the one dollar cheese slices from my friend when we were talking at four in the afternoon one Saturday night: hella modifies the adverb quickly, replacing very.
This does at least answer your second question (whether there were any other usages for this word that you were missing).
Judging from what I've heard of the word, I would say that your third example usage is pretty uncommon. A more normal usage would be:
You have to walk hella far to get to that subway station.
A crude proof would be to Google "walk hella"; the results show walk hella far, walk hella slow, etc. There are no examples of walk hella.
Best Answer
The third person of the verb for all singular persons is dialectal use in some afroamerican communities, mainly.
This has been used thoroughly in literature. For instance, Jim always speaks this way in The adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Nowadays, nevertheless, using dialectal writing is considered offensive by some people.