"Y'all" redux

[Wilson Gray]

"Y'all house," with "y'all" interpreted as possessive would be standard
in Black English, if there was a standard version of that dialect.

-Wilson

On Feb 21, 2005, at 12:22 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Y'all" redux
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>
> "y'all house" as possessive?  I've heard both "y'all's" and "y'allses"
> as
> possessive, but not "y'all."  Do you have "y'allses"?
>
> At 07:10 PM 2/19/2005, you wrote:
>> 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" <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 2:45 PM
>> Subject: "Y'all" redux
>>
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>>> 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
>>>
>