I see some of y’all already know this, but if you haven’t been over to Rossmiller’s today, his latest thread is good for some laughs.
I knew to expect something like this soon’s I saw Todd Graves’s argument about “plural y’all/singular you” — and sure enough, North Dakota-born David Rossmiller needs (and gets) some straightening-out. (I suppose having seen too many low-budget TV commercials) he begins pretty sure that some Southerners use y’all as a singular. But since he honors words and likes to get them right, he stops and asks for local directions, and what follows proves that we do agree with bellesouth on some matters. She’s in the crowd assuring him that the only speakers he’ll ever hear committing that usage are non-Southerners impersonating us.
There’s also a little side-argument on where in the word the apostrophe lives. All you gotta do to solve that one is remember that apostrophes are scar tissue showing where something’s been lopped off (for instance, “[space]ha” in “something’s” or “ou[space]” in “y’all”). I frequently see the mistaken spelling “ya’ll” (cough *NMC* cough) though, which I attribute to confusion with contractions of “will,” such as “I’ll” and “he’ll.”
Anyhow, it’s nice to know I’m not the only pedant on this beat after all. But it’s a shame that he couldn’t see his y’all-savvy visitors proudly wearing this:
A literal hat-tip to DeltaNative!
I think I may actually have a little bit of authority on this matter. Y’all oughta know that y’all has the apostrophe after the Y. It’s just the way it is. You’ll see the ya’ll version a lot in Texas or Virginia (truly outlying areas of the South). But in the context of being spoken in Mississippi, it’s y’all.
Y’all can be used in the singular or plural with indiscriminate abandon.
If someone came up to me and referred to me as “y’all” in the singular, I would immediately know that “y’all” ain’t from around here.”
Y’all can be used in the singular or plural with indiscriminate abandon.
Heh, Alan. Sho nuff, if you don’t mind your y’all-singular making some of us look at you funny.
Y’all can buy that hat in the gift shop near the Delta (no pun intended) ticket counter at lovely Jackson International Airport.
I never thought that I’d see a group of “us” (Southerners) arguing amongst each other over the use of y’all. If my granmama only knew…Everybody should know that y’all and grits are always plural.
Likewise, if someone came up to my wife and referred to her as y’all in the singular, her first question would be “are you calling me fat???”
Yep, Curly — fat or pregnant, one or the other.
Alan @ YallPolitics may be an infiltrator if he is the same Alan Lange living in Norfolk, VA … NOT CREDIBLE HERE IN THE DEEEEP SOUTH. Y’all is a very specific and well defined term down here.
[...] to folo and Rossmiller for so vigorously discussing the second person plural pronoun, [...]