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In Defense of Y'All

texasmonthly.com

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Re: In Defense of Y'All

#11

Post by gregw2 »

I tease non-Texans that Texan English is actually superior to normal American English because it supports second-person plural via "Y'all" exactly as mentioned in this article... "you guys" is, to some ears, sexist, and "youse guys" (a New York-ism) is a little too old-school Italian.

English lost its second person plural when we switched from Thou (second person singular formal + Thee=second person singular informal) and Ye (second person plural) to just "You", but Texans rightly have solved the problem and kept the clarity. (The more-modern "Yo" is delightfully brief but as ambiguous as "you".)

Now... if you want to tease a Texan back about all this, you can ask them whether that implies the proper phrase for when you enter Texas then should be "Abandon hope all y'all (was: ye) who enter here!"

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#14

Post by ppierald »

I like "Hi Team". I do use that in certain social circles, but I do get the point of the article.

Survivor, the US TV show, used to say "Come on in guys" until recently where they made a point to discuss the topic on camera with the contestants. There was a variety of opinions, but they ultimately settled on "Come on in." which conveys the point in a neutral tone.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#15

Post by Handprint4469 »

gregw2 wrote: post #11

I tease non-Texans that Texan English is actually superior to normal American English because it supports second-person plural via "Y'all" exactly as mentioned in this article... "you guys" is, to some ears, sexist, and "youse guys" (a New York-ism) is a little too old-school Italian. English lost its second person plural when we switched from Thou (second person singular formal + Thee=second person singular informal…

> "you guys" is sexist

is it though?

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#16

Post by mauvehaus »

Counter-proposal: Bring back "thou" as the second person singular pronoun and restore "you" to its rightful place as the second person plural pronoun.

As with so many of English's warts we can blame the French for the situation we're in. Vous in French is used when addressing a single person formally and conveys respect for the addressee. When class and station were more important following the Norman conquest of England, English speakers adopted the use of "you" to address a single person of higher status following the French custom. It's use became more widespread over time lest the speaker offend someone by using "thou" when the addressee thought that "you" was warranted.

As a practical matter, I use y'all. I think thou is a lovely word in its own right and is deserving of consideration.

N.b. IANALinguist, and IANAHistorian either. TINLinguisticA.

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#17

Post by arjie »

"Y'all" has been common for a while among Anglo-Indians in South India. I was quite surprised when I first went online among the predominantly American early-Internet community and discovered that y'all consider it a peculiarity of the American South. I've always liked it, though I don't use it anymore now that I live in the US (where it is a marker of the South).

Re: In Defense of Y'All

#18

Post by eminence32 »

As a New Englander, I am quite partial to "y'all" and "you all", mostly in written form. It is indeed a quite capable substitute to "you guys". But to my ear, "yall" is ever so slightly more informal than "you all", and so sometimes it doesn't feel exactly right.
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