you all's

[Breland, Mary Beth]

Beverly Flanigan wrote:
 A third form offered by a student of
mine is "you allses'," a possessive referring to a non-homogeneous group
(according to her), as in "Write down you allses' phone numbers" (I'm
supplying an apostrophe out of writing convention only, of
course).  Incidentally, she says she would say "your all's" and "your
allses'," but this seems to strangely mix standard and regional, doesn't
it?

I have to agree with the student who would say "your all's" and "your
allses.'"   I don't know whether I would actually say either one although
it's possible I do without being aware of it, but I know I've heard these
forms in Mississippi and my ear tells me she's right.  "You all's" without
the "r" sounds dissonant, incomplete, wrong, makes my skin crawl.  Using the
possessive form of the pronoun puts it in agreement with the possessive form
of "all."   I don't think it's a mix of standard and regional since the same
speakers use "your" when speaking to one person.  This is simply an instance
of redundancy at work.

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