Hyphenating "urinary bladder stones"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jul 14, 2013, at 5:33 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 4:40 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I wouldn't have hyphenated "you-all"
>
>
> Why not? I would have. What other way is there to spell it to get the
> required meaning?

Well, y'all, sort of, but I agree with your implicit point--that's not a different way to spell *it*, given the (sometimes subtle but real) differences between "you-all" and "y'all".  The latter sometimes represented as "ya'll", but that just seems weird. And "you all" sans hyphen doesn't really pick out the second personal plural.

LH

> This has been the usual way of spelling it for at least
> the past century.
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org