Southern 2nd-person plural double genitive

[Beverly Flanigan]

What I suspect happened is that the transcribers, unfamiliar with
"your-all's," assumed they had heard "you-all's" (perceiving the word in
terms of the only form familiar throughout the country).  In fact, I had
not heard the form at all until very recently, when a student who had lived
for a time in Alabama attested it; she claims to have heard it in SE Ohio
too, but I haven't confirmed this.  I mentioned the Lehrer quote to my TAs
a few days ago and got the usual horrified gasps--after which I gave them a
lesson on the Southern genitive, of course.  (BTW, I fell asleep for a
while too, and apparently missed the only substantive part of the "debate,"
on health care in Texas.)

At 08:39 AM 10/17/00 -0500, you wrote:
>On Mon, 16 Oct 2000, Rudolph C Troike wrote:
>
> > Did you-all catch Jim Lehrer's double genitive at the end of the
> presidential
> > "debate" the other night: "your-all's"? I just thought it should be noted
> > for the record.
>
>Shoot, so I did miss something, after all, when I fell asleep in the
>middle of the 10/11 debate. It's also interesting to consider which
>features are preserved in the transcripts and which are not, since at the
>website we have both RealAudio and the transcripts. If this is the part
>you're referring to, it seems to have been slightly sanitized:
>
>http://www.pbs.org/newshour/election2000/
>
>MR. LEHRER: I know. I know. (Laughter.) But about -- you're not -- under
>you-all's rules, you are not allowed to ask each other a question. I let
>you do it a moment ago --
>
>-Mai
>_____________________________________________
>Mai Kuha                  mkuha at bsuvc.bsu.edu
>Department of English     (765) 285-8410
>Ball State University


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm