Southern 2nd-person plural double genitive

[Natalie Maynor]

Jessie Emerson wrote:
> Which makes me think:  "ya'll" is the only southern form I know ("southern"
> being "highland southern" in my terminology).  I only hear "you all" in
> Foghorn Leghorn cartoons (although I will admit that it may be present in
> coastal southern).

I'm surprised.  You're in Huntsville, right?  If you want to hear
some real, live you-alls, I can give you some addresses to visit.
Or I can look for you the next time I'm there (which will be about
forty-eight hours from now) and ask you how you-all are doing
(associative you-all -- you and your family, etc.).

The y'all/you-all split seems to me related more to age than to
region.
Old people are more likely to say you-all.

I was interested in some comments a few days ago by a group of
students here at MSU (my MSU, not Dennis's).  We were talking about
y'all vs you-guys, and one of them said that, although she always
used y'all herself, she didn't find hearing you-guys nearly as
offensive as hearing you-all -- that you-all gave her the creeps.
Several others nodded in agreement.  I told them that they weren't
being very politic right here when I'm about to turn in mid-term
grades.  Apparently, they'd never noticed that I say you-all much
more often than I say y'all.

--
 -- Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)
    MSU=Mississippi State University