Garner’s Modern American Usage Dictionary estimates that y’all appears in print ten times more than does ya’ll. [17], There is long-standing disagreement among both laymen and grammarians about whether y'all has primarily or exclusively plural reference. 's original question: Is I'd've a proper word? As for “y’all,” it did first emerge as a dialect word and is therefore not usually appropriate in formal speech or writing.
“You” is all we English-speakers have to refer to any person or group or large crowd, regardless of status or size. is a cardinal article of faith in the South.
Y'all is unique in that the stressed form that it contracts (you-all) is converted to an unstressed form. Y’all is a contraction of two different words: you-all. We want to hear what you think about this article. Answer Save. Anyone who’s used English in any capacity knows that “you” is a sorry excuse for a plural pronoun.
If you find yourself using this sturdy Southernism in a piece of writing, be sure your apostrophe is in the proper place. Ozzy's use slang words all the time...it is not because we are not an intelligent person, it is because sometimes it is fun to abbreviate itelligent english...(it's sorta cool to use slang right now, so go you Kentuckians...)...let ya hair down !!.. He stated that plural use. The American Heritage Dictionary has a great usage note on the use of y’all, and it identifies the many unique circumstances where y’all can be used when speaking to a single person yet remain a plural pronoun. It could provide a better and gender-neutral word.
Y'all is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is best associated,[3] though it also appears in other English varieties, including African-American English and South African Indian English.
As with all contractions, an apostrophe is placed where the omission has occurred to indicate that a contraction has been formed. Is the following sentence grammatically correct?
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This is not the case. Teach it in schools across the country. Delivered to your inbox!
Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Update: I think this is the reason Kentucky has a bad reputation when it comes to intelligence. Even “thou,” the etymological informal brother of “you,” fell off the linguistic map around the 17th century.*. Only in reference to former Bengal Icky Woods. It is part of a regional U.S. dialect and is usually out of place in formal writing outside of direct quotations (both of our examples above were quotations).
“Y’all hiring?” “Y’all ok?” The possibilities are endless, and a simple substitution could actually solve a real problem in modern English that will only grow as we continue to examine how gender works in language. Sweeter than honey and often saturated with hidden meaning, it can open up a dialogue with a roomful of strangers with ease. As workplace and social situations seek to become increasingly inclusive of women and people who don’t conform to gender binaries, “you guys” feels more and more archaic.
The regional bias also bleeds into a quasi-racial bias against AAVE, even during a time when we have a president who employs a cache of its words, including “y’all,” fairly liberally. You should be able to substitute “in the” for “any” in a two-word phrase.
There are no distinct second-person plural pronouns in modern standard English. German has ihr.
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. [7] Y'all thus fills in the gap created by the absence of a separate second-person plural pronoun in standard modern English.
There’s no flow to it, and the slang nature of “guys” makes it ill-suited for formal speeches or addresses. [16] The possessive form of y'all has not been standardized; numerous forms can be found, including y'alls, y'all's, y'alls's, you all's, your all's, and all of y'all's. It is dialect and a combination of two words "you" and "all", but it is not a real word.