What is the correct plural form of y'all? Or, is y'all already plural?

The question has come up on another forum that I participate in, so I thought I would get some expert opinions here.

I hope that valentine, a true Southern gal, and S1997, a linguistics expert, will chime in.

How about any others? I'm sure many of you have opinions on this topic.

Having grown up in San Francisco, and living in Ithaca, NY; Ann Arbor, MI; Kansas City, KS; and now outside of Columbus, OH, I rarely came across people saying y'all, so I don't know the correct usage. I think about 95% of the time I have heard someone say Y'all in my entire life, it was valentine who was saying it!

How about it, All Y'all, can you help me out here?

 

"Y'all" is the contraction of "you all". So it is already plural.

 

ok not an expert at linguistics but that's never stopped me before.
y'all is short for you all. All is actually singular but encompasses the entirety of those present. That can be one or a hundred.

2 the whole number of (used in referring to individuals or particulars, taken collectively): all students.

so a plural would not make sense.

 

Yall is plural and as I've always used it is a short version of you all. We've ALWAYS said yall (no apostrophe) for just about any occasion when more than one person is included in the sentence, ie, Yall come back to see us again, ya heah? (Which means, You all come back to see us again, you hear?)
I prefer hearing yall to hearing "you-uns" which I think is a northern version of yall that is used in some states. I've noticed people from Ohio use you-uns and we-uns, which I think means all of us. Southerners would just say all of us and NEVER would say you'uns or we-uns. I've always found it comical that northerners tend to make fun of the way we speak and consider us ignorant and uneducated because of the accent. Yet, I've never made fun or felt folks were ignorant and uneducated for the funny accents and statements of speech they use which sound just as ignorant and uneducated imho. Southerners as a rule are quite proud of the way we speak and it is an affront to our dignity when it is ridiculed.

Sorry, Bolt, but yall is plural and does not refer to one person. When referring to one person, we would simply say something along this line: You be sure to come back to see again, you heah?

 

PS. If y'all were the proper spelling, we southerners would be pausing between the "y" and the "all", so it would be coming out y-all. Not so. All my life I've used yall when writing folks and in convo. At a recent Historical Society meeting I was pleasantly amused to notice just how many of the people there used the term "all yall". I feel the "all" is unnecessary since yall includes everyone anyway. It was cute hearing it though. Needless to say, I'm extremely protective and somewhat proud of my southern heritage.

 

Oh, valentine, I sure hope that you didn't think I was ridiculing you when I singled you out as the person that I have heard say yall the most. I definitely did not mean it that way at all! Please accept my sincere apologies if I said it in a way to offend you.

I just thought that you would know the "correct" usage.

I think, though, that the "correct" usage depends upon where you live.


For example, read this

Or, this

P.S. Although I live in Ohio, I never say "you un's," or "we un's," or whatever it was you said you hear Ohioans say. Of course, I don't consider myself an Ohioans anyway; I was merely transplanted here.

Oh, many people here in Ohio say that I have an accent. I don't hear that I talk much differently than they do at all, but I guess to them, they somehow think that I sound "funny."

 

OMG!!!!! Certainly you did not offend me! As a matter of fact I'm flattered. There is absolutely no need for an apology. Jim and I have been reading some books recently about the history of South Carolina and it is often mentioned that a lot of words we use are derived from old English, Scotch, Irish, etc. pronunciations. Some of our "lingo" also came from the Gullah language adapted by the African slaves as well.

Jim has a number of relatives who hail from Ohio and they are liberal users of the you-uns and we-uns. I've also noticed it is used by some of the Ohioans who have moved here.
I've never noticed that you have an accent at all. +1 is from Ohio and maybe because I'm so accustomed to his way of speaking, I don't notice he has an accent. His sister who lived in Ohio all her life speaks so fast I have trouble understanding her. Her speech does not sound quite as lyrical or clear as I recall your way of speaking sounds.

 

Phewww...I didn't think you would be offended but I just wanted to make sure and clear the air, just in case!

I think that language is very interesting. I have not heard of the Gullah language. I'll have to look that up. I always like to learn new things.

I have forgotten...where did you actually grow up?

 

Well, since I grew up in San Francisco, and lived there for the first 22 years of my life, I guess Ohioans don't think that I sound like them. I don't hear much difference, though, from the other people I hear all of the time,say my co-workers, etc.

But, somehow, they must hear some differences in my speech patterns.

 

Oh, you'll love reading about the Gullah language. It is quite a fascinating cultural experience. We have a small Gullah museum here and there are some folks who live on an isolated island nearby who speak nothing else. I took Angela to the museum when she was here one time and she absolutely LOVED it.
I grew up in central Virginia very near Appomattox, Virginia (where our nation reunited). In that area the people who lived in the town (Lynchburg) spoke quite differently from those in the surrounding counties. I found that fascinating. I could always tell if someone came from Amherst County, Campbell County or Appomattox County just by the accent. Some people lump all the southerners together into a neat little package. This is not at all the case. Different localities in the same state have different patterns of speech. I've often thought it would be great fun to have S1997 explain all those differences, but I feel it is due to the various settlements by people of various countries.