"Y'all" redux

[Wilson Gray]

Jeez, Bev, I'm sorry. I didn't mean my post as a criticism of your
post. I was just adding some info. Since I'm retired, I use trash TV,
especially Jerry, Maury, and the Club Comic View show on BET, as my
informants. On those shows, you will almost never hear a possessive /s/
used by a black guest and its use is getting to be relatively rare
among Latins, especially in the phrase, "baby daddy," which BET even
pluralizes in print as "baby daddies," though you would expect "babies'
daddies."

-Wilson

On Feb 22, 2005, at 2:51 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
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Yes, zero possessive marking would make sense in Black English.  The
> earlier example may or may not have been BE (I should have asked the
> writer).
>
> At 09:25 PM 2/21/2005, you wrote:
>> "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
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> --
>>> --------
>>>
>>> "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
>