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

allright. i am sick and tired of every "southerner" spelling y'all wrong. lets get this right, once and for all. the word comes from our inability to ever say full words or complete sentences. it is short for YOU ALL, hence when you place the apostrophe, it should go after the 'y' and before the 'a,' since this is how the words are broken up. it is not ya'll because it is not short for youa ll. there aint no such thing.
trust me on this. i use this word every day, several times a day. i am right, y'all are not. (see, i used it just now)
so, whoever has the ability to edit this entry, please do so at your earliest convenience, or if you could, the day before that.

thanks ever so much
kalu

As a resident of a state that is occasionally lumped in with the south, other times with the midwest, still other times with the southwest, I would like to offer my personal opinion that the term y'all be officially adopted into the English language as our second person plural indicative. I further suggest that the apostrophe be dropped entirely.

Our language has been sadly lacking for quite some time; we have not had the ability to distinguish between, say, "You make me hurl," and "You make me hurl." We have had to add extra words to show that we are speaking to a group of people, as in "You people make me hurl." How much better it would be if we could say "Yall make me hurl," without being labeled redneck/hick/generally uneducated. For contrast, French has three second person forms! (Tu, vous, and toi)

How about it, Webster?

Granted, the apostrophe should be removed and the word "yall" and its likes entered into formal language. However, noting regional differences, and the lack of a plural "you" in the English language that is official, it is highly unlikely that "yall" would become the standard. What would happen to "you'ns?" If the apostrophe is removed, the pronunciation becomes confusing.

Besides, New Englanders are a hoot, sounding like they have a crab pinching their tongue when they say "y'all." Best to keep this occurrence a novelty.

*Blink* "youa ll" ?? Erm...

You are, of course, correct in the placement of the apostrophe in Y'all, however it's because it's not short for ya will (an apostrophe in an abbreviation is used to indicate where the missing letters should go, and there are no missing letters in the all part of you all).

*duffs marm hat and skitters off*

~~···

*pokes back in for just a sec*

Unless, of course, it -is- intended as a shortening of ya will (which does sometimes happen)... in which case, ya'll is just purrrrfectly correct.

*skampers away again*

as in, "if yous guys ain't got mista cappucci's money by thoisday, i'm gonna come back and rearrange your face"?

Of course the proper usage is ya'll,,, I say/type it every day. But do you ever find , when talking to more than three people it becomes ... "All ya'll" ?

interestingly enough, the english language (and yes, american english as well) has a specific form for the plural second person. it is "you." the form that is missing in the present day is the singular second person, which used to be in the form of "thee." the different forms of this included thee, thy, and thou. (I beleive I have the spelling correct, but I may not. I also used to know what each form was, but have forgotten the distinction between thee and thou. I can tell you that thy is possessive...) unfortunately, as I learned when I tried it out of curiosity, if you attempt to use these forms nowadays, you are labeled as a weirdo, in the case of children at least, just strange to adults, and usually are assumed to be Amish or some such thing. the word "you" did, however, have a singular meaning as well, in the case of showing respect to someone, similar to the way you use "usted" in spanish rather than "tu."
just a tidbit of information I picked up somewhere, lord knows when...

You can think of Thou and Thee in the same way as Who and whom. Thou is used when it's the subject and Thee is the object of the predicate. Thusly:

Thou hast no worldly goods, so I offer thee shelter for thy night.

'Nonnie