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Information about Y'all

Water tower in Florence, Kentucky featuring the word y'all. The city originally painted the tower to read "Florence Mall" as part of their agreement to lease the land from the mall for the tower. Because the tower was painted before the mall was finished, it violated state highway laws, so they changed the wording from "FLORENCE MALL" to "FLORENCE Y'ALL" to avoid having to repaint the entire tower.


Y'all, sometimes misspelled as "Ya'll", "Yawl", or "Yaw", and archaically spelled "You-all", is a fused grammaticalization of the phrase "you all". It is used primarily as a plural second-person pronoun, and less commonly as a singular second-person pronoun. Commonly believed to have originated in the Southern United States, it is primarily associated with Southern American English, African American Vernacular English, and some dialects of the Western United States.[1]

Usage

There are currently six recognized properties that y'all follows[2]:
  1. a replacement for plural you
  2. * Example: "Y'all can use the internet at the same time"
  3. an associative plural, including individuals associated but not present with the singular addressee
  4. * Example: "We're free after 10," John says. "Y'all can come over at around 10:30," Chris replies.
  5. ** Chris explains to John that he and John's friends, who are not present at the time, can come over at around 10:30. Chris is speaking to John, but treats John as a representative for others (i.e. his friends).
  6. an institutional plural addressed to one person representing a group
  7. * Example: "Y'all sell the best candies in the south, Mrs. Jo Jelly."
  8. ** Y'all is received by Mrs. Johnson who is the representative of a small candy business
  9. an unknown potential referent
  10. * Example: At the sky, Alex yells "Y'all can't beat me!"
  11. ** Alex is yelling at an unknown party
  12. a form used in direct address in certain contexts (e.g., partings, greetings, invitations, and vocatives)
  13. * Example: "Howdy, Y'all"
  14. ** A greeting that addresses a multitude of people without referencing a singular identity comprising that multitude
  15. a stylistic choice distinct in tone (e.g., in intimacy, familiarity, and informality)
  16. * Example: "You all look tough, but y'all aren't!"
  17. ** Y'all enables a quick three-syllable clause that is easier to say than "but you all aren't."


Y'all is also used in the phrase "all y'all", which is a more inclusive form comparable to "all of you". Note that we can be used as the first-person analog of y'all for the first three properties listed above.

Origin

Unfortunately, no one is certain of the true origin.

It is a common belief that y'all was invented by people in the Southern United States as a replacement for "you all" due to its convenience. Rather than say you all, you-uns, you lot, or you guys; y'all may be construed as a single element requiring only one morpheme. However, some argue that the stress pattern of y'all does not favor the contraction you+all because it would likely derive you'll instead of y'all similar to how we+all leads to ''we'll'.

Though the you all contraction argument may make sense when considering current-day vernacular, it is prudent to consider the vernacular which existed at the time which y'all was likely invented. By the late 1700s, Scots-Irish immigrants had settled in the Southern United States. It is well established that Scots-Irish immigrants frequently used the term ye aw. [3] Some evidence suggests that y'all could have evolved from ye aw due to the influence of African slaves whom may have adapted the Scots-Irish term.[4]

The ye+aw origin may be apparent in a modern-day variation of y'all whereby some put the apostrophe after the 'a' (e.g. ya'll). This suggests that y'all could be a contraction for ya all. This is illustrated in the phrase "Ya'll come back now, ya hear!" and a recent Best Western advertisement. [5]

The evolution of y'all continues today. There appears to be an increasing tendency, especially on the Internet, to spell it without the apostrophe, yall, which if it becomes common usage would make it a standard pronoun, rather like Dutch jullie. [1]

Controversy

There is also a long disagreement about whether y'all can have primarily singular reference. While y'all is generally used in the Southern United States as the plural form of "you" a scant but vocal minority (for example, Eric Hyman[6]) argue that the term can be used in the singular. Adding confusion to this issue is that observers attempting to judge usage may witness a single person addressed as y'all if the speaker implies in the reference other persons not present: "Have y'all [you and others] had dinner yet?" (to which the answer would be, "Yes, we have", even though a single person has answered.)

It has been argued by one linguist that the singular y'all is in reality a polite form of address, corresponding to 'vous' in French, 'usted' in Spanish, and 'Sie' in German. [7]

H.L. Mencken argued that y'all or you-all cannot have a primarily singular reference:
is a cardinal article of faith in the South. ... Nevertheless, it has been questioned very often, and with a considerable showing of evidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to be sure, you-all indicates a plural, implicit if not explicit, and thus means, when addressed to a single person, 'you and your folks' or the like, but the hundredth time it is impossible to discover any such extension of meaning.

– H.L. Mencken, The American language : an inquiry into the development of English in the United States, 1948, p.337''

References

1. ^ Bernstein, Cynthia: "Grammatical Features of Southern speech: Yall, Might could, and fixin to". English in the Southern United States, 2003, pp. 106 Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Ching, Marvin K. L.: "Plural You/Y'all Variation by a Court Judge: Situational Use". American Speech - Volume 76, Number 2, Summer 2001, pp. 115-127 Duke University Press
3. ^ Bernstein, Cynthia: "Grammatical Features of Southern Speech: Yall, Might could, and fixin to". English in the Southern United States, 2003, pp. 108-109 Cambridge University Press
4. ^ Lipski, John. 1993. "Y'all in American English," English World-Wide 14:23-56.
5. ^ [2]
6. ^ [3] Hyman, Eric: "The All of You-all", American Speech 81:3(2006)
7. ^ Estelle Rees Morrison: "You-all and we-all", American Speech 2:133, 1926

See also

Modern English personal pronouns
I • you • he • she • it • one • we • you • they
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately (to achieve a specific effect) or as part of a specific jargon (for example in law) or formula (for example in religious contexts).
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In historical linguistics, grammaticalisation (also known as grammaticisation or grammatisation) is a process of linguistic change by which a content word (lexical morpheme) changes into a function word or further into a grammatical affix.
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Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world.

In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.

In English, nouns, pronouns, and demonstratives inflect for plurality.
..... Click the link for more information.
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns.
..... Click the link for more information.
    In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is the antecedent of the pronoun.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    For other uses, see singular (disambiguation).
    SINGULAR is a computer algebra system for polynomial computations with special emphasis on the needs of commutative algebra, algebraic geometry, and singularity theory.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
    Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns.
    ..... Click the link for more information.
      In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is the antecedent of the pronoun.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to throughout most of Texas.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      African American Vernacular English (AAVE) – also called African American English, Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV) and Black Vernacular English (BVE
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Western United States—commonly referred to as the American West or simply The West—traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States (see geographical terminology section for further discussion of these
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes (the smallest linguistically distinctive units of sound), and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes (the
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Scots-Irish is an ethnic group from Ireland which ultimately traces its roots back to settlers from Scotland, and to a lesser extent, England. In particular Scots-Irish can often be traced back to the Scottish Highlands, Scottish Lowlands, Galloway, the English and Scottish
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Scots-Irish is an ethnic group from Ireland which ultimately traces its roots back to settlers from Scotland, and to a lesser extent, England. In particular Scots-Irish can often be traced back to the Scottish Highlands, Scottish Lowlands, Galloway, the English and Scottish
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Scots-Irish is an ethnic group from Ireland which ultimately traces its roots back to settlers from Scotland, and to a lesser extent, England. In particular Scots-Irish can often be traced back to the Scottish Highlands, Scottish Lowlands, Galloway, the English and Scottish
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Dutch}}} 
      Writing system: Latin alphabet (Dutch variant) 
      Official status
      Official language of:  Aruba
       Belgium
       European Union
       European Union
       Netherlands Antilles
       Suriname
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      Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956), better known as H. L. Mencken, was a twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, known as the "Sage of Baltimore".
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      Yinz is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in southwest Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the Appalachians. (See: Pittsburgh English.
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      YOU is a South African magazine which is the English version of the Afrikaans family magazine Huisgenoot.

      This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. For other uses, see You (disambiguation).

      ..... Click the link for more information.
      YOU is a South African magazine which is the English version of the Afrikaans family magazine Huisgenoot.

      This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. For other uses, see You (disambiguation).

      ..... Click the link for more information.
      We (IPA: /wiː/) is the first-person, plural personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English. Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
      Singular Plural
      Subject Object Possessive Subject Object Possessive
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to throughout most of Texas.
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      The Florence Y'all Water Tower is a water tower that stands between the Florence Mall and I-75 in Florence, Kentucky.[1]

      History

      Originally the water tower advertised the up-and-coming Florence Mall, as part of an agreement by the mall developers who donated
      ..... Click the link for more information.
      personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. Modern English is a language with very little inflection, to the point where some authors describe it as analytic, but its system of personal pronouns has preserved part of the
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        Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns.

        English personal pronouns

        Main article: English personal pronouns


        Ordinary English has seven personal pronouns:

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          I (IPA: /aɪ/) is the first-person, singular personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English. Personal pronouns in standard Modern English
          Singular Plural
          Subject Object Possessive Subject Object Possessive
          ..... Click the link for more information.
          YOU is a South African magazine which is the English version of the Afrikaans family magazine Huisgenoot.

          This article is about the Modern English personal pronoun. For other uses, see You (disambiguation).

          ..... Click the link for more information.


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