Mastodawn

‘“Y'all” Is Going Mainstream’
#TheConversation #DavidBParker #Language #WritingTip

“English...doesn’t have a good second person plural pronoun; ‘you’ can be both singular and plural. ... ‘Y’all’ fills that second person plural slot—as does ‘you guys,’ ‘youse,’ ‘you-uns’ and a few others.”

This makes me wonder if we’ll ever say “they all” or “th’all” to mean the plural “they” so that the regular “they” can be the non-gendered singular form.

What do y’all think?

https://theconversation.com/yall-that-most-southern-of-southernisms-is-going-mainstream-and-its-about-time-193265

‘Y'all,’ that most Southern of Southernisms, is going mainstream – and it’s about time

The use of ‘y'all’ has often been seen as vulgar, low-class and uncultured. That’s starting to change.

The Conversation

the Stripey Goodness Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory "you" is plural. If thou needst an alternative in the singular, that is also available.
(this is a joke)

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@stripey I laughed! :)

softicecreamlesley Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory It’s just hard to wrap my brain around the idea that a word progressives used to look down on (as well as the people who uttered it) is suddenly being embraced by those same progressives. I’m happy the word is being used to welcome and include everyone.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@softicecreamlesley
My friends from the South (several decades ago) would give me, a Northerner, grief if I used it, saying I hadn't "earned" it. So I've always avoided it to be respectful, in a way. Guess things are changing!

elementalaurora Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory I am so glad that something like this already exists, because it does confuse me, with they being a pronoun now!

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory @softicecreamlesley I LOVE “Y’ALL”! I hear people saying you can’t use it unless you’re from the US South but as a Briton I willingly embrace and use it, it’s a fantastic use of language. Changes to “they” maaaay happen, but I suspect significantly further down the road given how long it’s taking for “y’all” to reach universal popularity…

softicecreamlesley Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory @pippa Who said you can’t use it if you’re not from the South? 🤔

If anyone did, it’s probably because of defensiveness since people looked down on Southerners who said “y’all” for a very long time.

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@softicecreamlesley I’ve heard it a couple of times! At least one may have been incredulity that someone from England would use such an ✨American✨ word and they couldn’t match the accents up in their head or something, I dunno. But since we’ve spoken before about how Southern accents are perceived (and how much I love hearing them), I understand what you mean!

@softicecreamlesley @thinkStory @pippa British people do get on at other Brits for using Americanisms, and honestly, I'm guilty of it too. I always prefer my kids to use Britishisms instead of Americanisms. Language is heritage etc.

softicecreamlesley Feb 2, 2023

@pippa @jamesrg @thinkStory Yeah, but teaching your own kids language and criticizing the speech of grown adults around you are two completely different situations.

@softicecreamlesley @pippa @thinkStory

Accent and manner of speech is one of those class things in the UK and you can bet people police it. Using mannerisms appropriate to your class or your audience is something that really seems like no-one would consider important, but they do.

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@jamesrg @softicecreamlesley yeah, I insist my kid uses English pronunciation and British words for things, but there’s no “y’all” in BrE so i feel justified in using it 😂 (also “hella” is great too but that is both the wrong side of the country and apparently now dated 💔)

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@softicecreamlesley I did have friends from the South when I (a Northerner) was a kid look askance if I tried to use it. It was like faking a Southern accent back then. So I've avoided it. Time to change it up!

@pippa @thinkStory @softicecreamlesley

Will it supplant the British Estuary "you lot" or the Midlands "allayer" I wonder?

I think that while English doesn't have any official term for this, it has more than a few others to fill the gap, and they mostly vary by region.

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@jamesrg @softicecreamlesley true, but i use you lot and y’all in different ways, I think 🤔 like, “wot d’you lot want?” and “what do y’all want?” have very different vibes

@pippa @softicecreamlesley

My nan would always ask us grandkids "what do you lot want for tea" so i dunno 😂

salyavin Feb 2, 2023

@jamesrg
Eat your tea!
@pippa @softicecreamlesley

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@jamesrg @pippa @softicecreamlesley I love "you lot."

mathew Feb 2, 2023

@pippa @thinkStory @softicecreamlesley What changes to "they" are you referring to?

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@mathew @thinkStory @softicecreamlesley the ones mentioned in the original toot 😁

mathew Feb 2, 2023

@pippa @thinkStory @softicecreamlesley Ah, right. "They all" seems problematic because it sounds so much like "they'll", which already exists with quite different meaning.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@pippa I may just start saying "they all" myself just to see what happens. LOL

Pippa 🌈Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory you’ll have to report back and let us know how it goes! 😂

The Choir Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory my nephew managed to develop an Oklahoma vocabulary despite his Maryland upbringing and used “y’all” as a singular pronoun. When asked about the plural, he answered “all y’all.”

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@tpanero I love "all y'all"! Sounds like a party.

Rory Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory In some dialects, "Youse" gets the honors of being second person plural. Hear it a lot in the Scottish Borders.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@rsjaffe also Brooklyn, New York!

Rory Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory From DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jlg.2022.2, where the yellower it is, the more likely Youse is used. I heard it a lot on the Isle of Man, too.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@rsjaffe Fascinating.

Scott Bronson Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory love it. And it’s time to drop the apostrophe and let yall be a word on its own. (& the possessive “yall’s” is great and “y’all’s” is nuts).

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@sb ha! or the lovely y'allses' for more than one group of y'alls who possess something.

Monica Heilman 지혜 Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory I say "you all" sometimes. 😅 I'm not from the South so it feels inauthentic to use y'all... not that I've ever met someone who minded.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@writingmonicker I had Southern kids call me out on it when I was younger, but maybe it was because I was also unconsciously emulating their Texan accent--oops!

Bike Boi Feb 2, 2023

When I think of the new popularization of "y'all," as a southerner, I really don't see it as people borrowing from the way we speak. I could be wrong, but the new popularity seems to have originated as an appropriation of AAVE by Twitter users.

thinkStory Feb 2, 2023

@bikeboi interesting.

VicMarNews Feb 2, 2023

@thinkStory
Agree. After years of resistance and mockery (Waitress: "I'll get y'all's check" = 2nd person plural possessive!) it absolutely makes sense. or maybe after 7 years in the ATL area I'm just getting used to it, using it myself.

Terry McDonald Feb 3, 2023

@thinkStory In Newfoundland, we use 'ye' (pronounced yee) - as in "B'ys, what are ye at?". It works well.

thinkStory Feb 3, 2023

@terrymcd Interesting! I like that one.

(she/her)Feb 3, 2023

@thinkStory After I visited some states in the South about 35 years ago, I learned about y'all. And now use it all the time 🙂

Kate Watson Feb 3, 2023

@thinkStory Campaign against the singular ‘you’ and ‘yours’ which is just confusing when we have the perfectly good ‘thou/thy’ and ‘thine’ for that.

thinkStory Feb 3, 2023

@antinomy forsooth, thou speaketh truth.

WhichOne'sPink 🇫🇮Feb 3, 2023

@thinkStory just another Americanism.