Singular y'all?

[Beverly Flanigan]

Me too--from South Midlanders--but rarely.  Just today a new custodian
(local Athens County woman, about 50) used "youse" twice in a conversation
with me.  I think she meant plural, but I've already forgotten the context.

At 05:54 PM 2/22/2005, you wrote:
>I too have heard pl. poss. "your-all's," but not more than a very few
>times. The speakers *seemed* to be Southerners.  Wish I could remember
>more.  (Goes for generally, too).
>
>JL
>
>Rachel Shuttlesworth <rshuttle at BAMA.UA.EDU> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Rachel Shuttlesworth
>Subject: Re: Singular y'all?
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I agree with you, Jason (and BTW, hey, man, how's it going at APR? Long
>time, no see.).
>
>I think that in some professions, particularly those where groups of two
>or more persons are commonly addressed, a Southerner (at least an
>Alabamian) can inadvertently say "y'all" to one person; I had to
>self-correct y'all to you more than once when working as a hostess in a
>restaurant in Tuscaloosa. I also know that "y'all" CAN be said to one
>person, but referring to more than one, at least around here (as in Ron
>Butter's 2001 article in AmSp). Please note that I am not EVEN trying to
>refute any of the singular "y'all" cases found in Texas or Oklahoma.
>Bailey and Tillery have done work on this, right (1998, also in AmSp)?
>I've also been told by a native Oklahoman (sorry, no more details than
>that) that he has heard and used "y'all" as singular. I responded with,
>"As in, 'I love y'all's shirt'?" He said, "Yep."
>
>On the possessive form, I say "y'all's," but the one that took the cake
>in my book was "your all's" from a resident of Florida, native of New
>Jersey, who is a y'all user.
>
>Rachel
>
>Jason Norris wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jason Norris
> > Subject: Re: Singular y'all?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I grew up in the South. Y'all is definitely plural.
> >
> > That's not to say you won't hear it used in a singular way, but perhaps
> that is due to a slight mental lapse rather than dialect variation.
> >
> > In the example mentioned below, the tired server at Waffle House may
> have said, "Y'all" all day long. When she served the person sitting alone
> at the table, it could have simply been a slip. It has happened to me
> before -- just like that (not at Waffle House, though).
> >
> > If y'all (or yall, as some spell it) is ever used consistently in a
> singular fashion, I've never heard it. Or it could be that's just how we
> talk in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
> >
> > Roll Tide, Y'all.
> >
> > Jason
> >
> >
> >
> > Alice Faber wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Alice Faber
> > Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> > Subject: Singular y'all?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >>From a blog I regularly read, by a native Torontonian
> > .
> > Note the first paragraph:
> >
> > "Welcome back y'all. (Or is that "y'alls" I can never figure that
> > out. I was in a "Waffle House" in Tennessee once and the lady who poured
> > my coffee said "Y'all want cream in that?" which confused me, since I
> > was alone. Clearly, "Y'all" must be the singular, which perplexingly
> > must mean that "y'alls" is the plural...right? Maybe this is something
> > else Laurie can tell us, since she's an English professor.)"
> >
> > --
> > Alice Faber
> > Haskins Labs
> >
> >
> > If we knew what we were doing,
> > it wouldn't be called research,
> > would it?
> >
> > -- Albert Einstein
>
>--
>~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
>
>Dr. Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
>CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow
>University of Alabama Libraries
>Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0266
>Office: 205.348.4655/ Fax:205.348.8833
>rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu
>
>
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