A new one on me y'all guys

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter said:
> My neighbor, age 70+, a lifelong resident of Knoxville, Tenn., clearly and
> habitually says "you-all," just as it's printed in older books.
>
> The Wacky article is so clumsily written as to make me fear that at least
> some of the "famous author" exx. represent "you will."  (A quick sample of
> Faulkner at Google books shows only "y'all.")

I can find one edition of the writings by William Faulkner that
contained "ya'll" in Google Books. The passage with the term was from
"The Sound and the Fury" I think. But the common modern contraction
"y'all" was used in all the other editions that I can see in Google
Books. For unknown reasons I cannot link directly to the relevant
passage.

Go to Google or Google Books and search for the following quoted
string and you should be led to the relevant passage:

"Den ya'll go out"

To see other examples using the more conventional contraction search
for the following:

"Den y'all go out"

(If you are reading this in future days then the instructions above may fail.)

Of course, the instance of "ya'll" might simply be a mistake.
Examination of William Faulkner's draft manuscript for the text (if
the draft exists) would help resolve this question.

Title: The Faulkner Reader
Author: William Faulkner
Publisher: The Modern Library
Edition: v3.1

http://books.google.com/books?id=FtUIHqSj2zoC&

[Begin excerpt]
“Yessum,” Luster said. “Quit long time ago.”
“Den ya'll go out do's a while,” she said. “I jes got Miss Cahline quiet now.”
“Is we gwine to church?” Luster said.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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