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In Defense of Y'All
111–120 of 381 posts
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#112I 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…
I did not know "ye" was second person plural. I'm bringing it back. Ye can thank me later.
Yeah “ye” as in “avast ye scallywags”
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#113I live in Maine, one of the most northy north U.S. states, and I now use y'all all the time. It's totally fit for purpose.
Edit: In fact I use it so often at work that my very prim-and-proper British colleague now uses it often and unironically, which is kinda hilarious.
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#114It's indeed useful to distinguish singular you from plural you, which is something that most other languages do. As a non native speaker, I'm sometimes confused and wish to see a distinction between between singular and plural they (they-all?)
I thought 'they' is always plural? I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Early Modern English, you is inherently plural; the singular form is thou . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou
thou is the singular intimate. (compare the tu- form, in french). You could be singular or plural, but it was always formal. (compare the vous- form, in french) Knowing this puts a whole new spin on things like the KJV, since as moderns we hear "thou" and think "fancy old timey speech! very formal!" and it is exactly the opposite. Quakers/Friends chose the thou- form as the preferred form to address everyone; this wa…
I was taught Biblical Hebrew by an Australian scholar who learned hers in the south of the US, and I picked up from her the habit of translating the second plural as "y'all" :-) You can of course do the same with Greek. For some reason I preferred "y'all" to the more Australian "youse."
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
This whole thread is extremely confusing to this Appalachian native. Y'all is used quite widely throughout the entire southeast. It's recognized, if not used, through the entire country. I've also seen its use increasing in the Midwest as it seeps out of the south. Do many people actually see this as a novel word? It's incredibly common from my perspective here in Ohio.
On the west coast or northeast it would be very surprising to hear someone say it.
I'm in Maine and say it all the time, but I'm definitely unusual in that regard.
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#117[flagged]
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Re: In Defense of Y'All
#118It's indeed useful to distinguish singular you from plural you, which is something that most other languages do. As a non native speaker, I'm sometimes confused and wish to see a distinction between between singular and plural they (they-all?)
I thought 'they' is always plural? I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.
They can refer to a single person.
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#119I 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…
After moving to Texas, I adopted it for this reason. It's easy to slide in an no one will be offended.
Re: In Defense of Y'All
#120As a non-native English speaker, I love "y'all" because it lets me directly translate our word for, well, "y'all" to English. I seriously struggle to formulate sentences such that it's clear from context that I mean "plural you" in this here case. So what happens is, I start saying a sentence that has "you" in it, and at the "y" I notice that it'll be unclear, I quickly bend it to "y'all", and the day is saved! Hoora…
I picked up "y'all" in English when I started studying Spanish. After using "plural you" constructions in Spanish I found myself wanting them when speaking English.