Welcome to Modern Speach 101. Our lesson today is the word y'all and its derivatives.

Let us begin with the boring stuff, just as Mrs. Klutch always did back in high school. Y'all is a variant of You-all that has generally suplanted that longer form as it is more comfortable on the tongue and its use shows that the speaker does not hail from West Virginia. Y'all is singular, All Y'all is plural, Y'all's and All Y'all's are single and plural possessive, respectively.

Phew, glad that's over. Now let's move onto the fun stuff. Why do we need Y'all in all its forms and glory? Because the English language has hamstrung itself with the loss of the plural possesive pronoun. Once upon a time we had Ye and life was good. "Hear ye, hear ye", etceteras. Some time in the early 1800's the use of ye was lost in favor of the generic you. This sucked. I mean really, can you picture the town crier yelling out "Hear you, hear you"? This loss was quickly corrected with regional abberations of you-all. In the northeast we have youse as in "Hey! Youse guys better pay up your vig or Vinnie Two Thumbs is gonna break your kneecaps". In the middle Atlantic states you-all was preserved in its pure form giving us usage such as "You-all should stop going to family reunions looking to pick up chicks". In the south sometime around 1834 the use of y'all gained wide acceptance allowing concise statements such as "Y'all come check this out before I flush it".

Actually, that last example is substandard. The correct sentence would be "Y'all come check this out afore I flush it".

Great care must be made regarding which form of y'all to use. Use these examples of proper usage as a guide:

Addressing a single person or small group representing a larger group:
1) Y'all gonna finish that?
2) Y'all just opened up a fresh can of whoop-ass.

Addressing a group, especially when the group is racially, geographically or religiously distinct:
1) I'd be off the welfare if it weren't for all y'all carpet baggers taking the good jobs.
2) All y'all are just lucky my woman ain't cleaned my white sheet yet from the last lynchin.

Possessive address regarding something belonging to a single person or representative group:
1) Those wheels still on y'all's trailer?
2) Y'all's kids outta third grade yet?

Possessive address regarding something belonging to a group:
1) Dale's car woulda put all y'all's to shame. Earnhardt! Wooo! Never forget!
2) Got me some shine better than all y'all's.

As intimated above, y'all and y'all's can be used in a limited plural form. For beginners it is sometimes advisable to stick to just those two. Incorrect usage of all y'all and all y'all's can identify you as either a Yankee or a Floridian, both with disastrous results.

Posted by: Jim at 10:59 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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