h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

a rather colorful entry coving the complete disregard we americans have for such concepts as spelling and grammatical construction...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A541063

the last example (for "all y'all") was supplied by Jake, so he could (should) be listed as a co-author? i think so.

have at it folks!

Hello,

Well, shucks. I'm honored, partner, but y'all don't have to get all fancy and make me a coauthor. Ain't no big deal I reckon, and y'all did a great job on the entry as a whole.

All y'all researchers better read this article, y'hear?

Yours,
Jake

Why can't 'y'all' be used to address larger groups?

i would think becuase thats what "all y'all" is for, although i dont see a problem with using y'all either

As a southerner by birth, I'll concur with the idea that "all y'all" is to be used for larger groups.

Also, if I may, I think a compare and contrast between the yankees from Jersey would make an interesting article. I must confess that while I'm not a hillbilly, I do have a "drawl" as they say, although I like to think of it as not in a hurry to say a whole bunch at one time. And the further I went North, the less I understood. And to this day the sound of a Yankee sounds foreign to my ears.

And lastly, a question. Did you notice that those who are in fact hillbilly and those who are city-country have a different sound to them altogether?

I think that it is important to add a little (very little) historical perspective to this article by noting that y'all was a perfectly acceptable contraction in Elizabethan English (That's Lizzie I, y'all. Lizzie II may feel diferent about that.)

Barton

Y'all for singular you? Hmmm... I grew up in Dallas, but that's not REALLY part of Texas, so maybe I just wouldn't know... I don't use y'all in the singular.

I think the superiority of y'all becomes clear when one reflects that there is otherwise no second person plural adjective in English. I mean, 'you' used to be plural and 'thou' was singular, but there's not much hope of reviving that, so all y'all better get used to 'y'all,' 'cause I reckon it's here to stay.

As a man with many redneck friends and acquaintances who has, through exposure and/or brain decay, adopted the word "y'all," since it does fill a gap in the English language, I can agree that I've neither used nor heard the word used in the singular. My redneck buddies always used "you" for an individual, "y'all" for plural, and "all y'all" for large groups or for emphasis (since I usually heard the latter preceded by a four-letter word that rhymes with "truck" ).

If there's an instance of y'all in Elizabethan English, I've never heard of it. I rather think that we'd have noticed it in Shakespeare, and laughed ourselves silly over it.

'Thou,' 'thee,' 'thy,' and 'thine' were singular familiar forms. 'You,' 'your,'and 'yours' were all plural and singular forms as they are today.

There are no instances of 'y'all' in Shakespeare but there are 87 instances of 'you all.' There are no instances of 'all you all.'

Barton

ok, so...y'all only for two or more. all y'all for large groups? either i (or perhaps one of our new yorkers) would be happy (i'm sure) to provide a yankee side of a north/south entry....

and is there an instance of y'all that can be quoted to prove that it was, in fact, proper kings english (way back when) I'm no lanuist, but i'd like to make sure of that little tid bit before we go dragging elizabethan english through the mud

Hello,

Here in New York, we speak only proper English (just ignore the guy saying "youse" over there). All we have really is funny accents, but not really new word usages (except it's amazing how versatile obscenities are in any sentence).

Yours,
Jake

Here in the Midwest, we don't speak English at all. We talk Amurican. But we are all taught how to speak English in school. It's probably the only foreign language that the majority of us know.

Barton

Where I come from (South Carolina and Texas), "y'all" is simply the second person plural pronoun. It is never used to address a single person (except by a non-native speaker, i.e. a "yankee"), and "all y'all" is rarely used, possibly to emphasize the uniting of individuals or separate groups.

One thing I would like to see changed is the jokes about Americans and grammar and spelling. As a people, we've actually managed the unmanageable English language better than our peers... our language is more closely matched to that which was spoken in England during the colonial times, and our dictionary writers made an effort to correct some of the stupider spellings (color NOT colour, draft NOT draught, etc).

The creativity and plain disregard for those improved grammatical and spelling rules is not a characteristic of all Americans, but different groups. And since we're talking about "y'all," we should be talking more specifically about Southerners It would be a different story if we were picking on New Yorkers for "youse."

I'm from Canada, and while I'm in the minority in this country, I use "y'all" regularly. In speech it is very useful to be able to delineate between "you" singular and "you" plural. I am extremely picky about proper grammar and spelling, however I have made it a small mission to (re)introduce "y'all" into Canadian speech. Kudoes for the entry, though I'd personally like to see a little more about the necessity of "y'all" for the English language.

Three cheers for the second person plural!

Well, if 'ye' wasn't an abandoned familiar form we'd already have a unique plural you and y'd all be saying ye all.

Barton

Wait a minute, maybe you are!

Barton

hmmm, i dont really have the necessary backround/upbringing to make all of the changes suggested here correctly. As a non-native(yankee)it seems to me that any changes i made would be subject to scrutiny of parties far more qualified to write this entry than me.

I want to limit bashing of the south in the entry, and, hey, southerners are americans too. so, i would like to let the generalizations about americans stand.

In the South of Johannesburg, South Africa and indeed in many other places in South Africa, youse is the one used. Y'all sounds much better.

Don't back out, now. You've just finished consulting with all the experts that h2g2 has on board. Take the data you've been given, use whatever portion of it is pertinent to your article, and there you are.

If you need amplification, just ask. In other words, tell us to put upor shut up.

Write that article and get it edited.


Barton