KaceyNov 18, 2022
Next time someone complains about singular "they" I'll point them to this 17th century rant against singular "you"
Show threadPeter BrownNov 19, 2022
@kacey of course on the West Coast of Scotland, Gaelic speakers moving to English needed a plural form of you, so they devised youse. And in the US both youse and y’all may be heard as plural forms to fill the gap caused by using you as a singular.
So we have gone full circle.
Show threadokapi
@peterbrown @kacey Thou came with a lot of irregular verb forms so the result has simplified the language somewhat. "You guys" also gets used as if it were a plural you. Possibly that's northern US. To me it sounds gender specific but I don't think its common usage is.
Nov 19, 2022 at 7:03pmWeb
Show threadグレェ「grey」Nov 19, 2022
@okapi I've known others take umbrage with the phrase "you guys" and gendering, which is why I tend to opt for writing it with the homonym: "you guise" which eliminates the gender concerns, and emphasizes the etymology of persona (mask); I am most certainly, an outlier with this usage, but I am an outlier with most things, and totally OK with that. @peterbrown @kacey