"Y'all" redux

[Jonathan Lighter]

In E. Tenn. I hear "y'all's" exclusively.  Let's start spelling it "yalls" (to bring it in line with "yours" ) and watch the fun.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Y'all" redux
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Yes. I agree with you that this is proper usage.

-Wilson Gray

On Feb 19, 2005, at 7:10 PM, Janis Vizier Nihart wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Janis Vizier Nihart
> Subject: Re: "Y'all" redux
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> As a white South Louisianian, I have never heard "Y'all" as a singular
> pronoun, but the use of "y'all's" and "y'all" as a possessive pronoun
> is
> used.(I passed by y'all's/ y'all house yesterday, but y'all weren't
> home.)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray"
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 2:45 PM
> Subject: "Y'all" redux
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: "Y'all" redux
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----
> -----
>>
>> In an earlier discussion as to whether Southern-English speakers
>> could,
>> would, or did use "y'all" as a singular, a white Mississippian, who
>> posted directly to me instead of to the list, and I, a black East
>> Texan, maintained that "y'all" is always plural. Many others didn't
>> agree and suggested that I might want to read what David Crystal, in
>> his "The Stories of English," has to say about his experience of the
>> use of "y'all" in Fort Worth, Texas, that experience being that
>> "y'all"
>> *is* used as a singular.
>>
>> In Texas, we say that the West begins at Fort Worth. So, I suggested
>> that perhaps there's or some kind of dialect split between East Texas
>> and Fort Worth.
>>
>> I have now read what Prof. Crystal has to say. Since I've never been
>> farther west in Texas than Longview, I accept Prof. Crystal's
>> description of the use of "y'all" in a representative metropolitan
>> area
>> in West Texas.. However, He also provides a dialect map that shows
>> that
>> East Texas, like Mississippi, falls into the region of Southern
>> English, whereas Fort Worth is located in the region of Western
>> English.
>>
>> So, concerning the "y'all" question, the answer appears to be that it
>> depends on where you are and/or whether your informant is back or
>> white.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>


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