Y'all

The Florence Y'all Water Tower in Florence, Kentucky. The sign was changed from "FLORENCE MALL" to solve a temporary legal issue with the intent to change it back soon afterward, but instead became an attraction in its own right.

Y'all, sometimes spelled 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 often 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, some dialects of the Western United States and also Sri Lankan English.^[1]

Usage

There are currently seven recognized^{[not in citation given]} properties that y'all follows^[2]:

1. a replacement for singular you
   • Example: "Y'all can fix my dinner now"
2. a replacement for plural you
   • 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
   • Example: "We're free after 10," John says. "Y'all can come over at around 10:30," Chris replies.
     • 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).
4. an institutional plural addressed to one person representing a group
   • Example: "Y'all sell the best candies in the South, Mrs. Johnson."
     • Y'all is received by Mrs. Johnson who is the representative of a small candy business
5. an unknown potential referent
   • Example: At the sky, Alex yells "Y'all can't beat me!"
     • Alex is yelling at an unknown party
6. a form used in direct address in certain contexts (e.g., partings, greetings, invitations, and vocatives)
   • Example: "Howdy, Y'all"
     • A greeting that addresses a multitude of people without referencing a singular identity comprising that multitude
7. a stylistic choice distinct in tone (e.g., in intimacy, familiarity, and informality)
   • Example: "You all look tough, but y'all aren't!"
     • Y'all enables a quick three-syllable clause that is easier to say than "but you all aren't." In this context, it is possible that the speaker would use "ain't" as opposed to "aren't."

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

Origin

The true origin of the term is uncertain. It is a common belief that y'all evolved in the speech of 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.

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][verification needed]} Some evidence suggests that y'all could have evolved from ye aw due to the influence of African slaves who may have adapted the Scots-Irish term.^{[4][verification needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

There is also a long-standing disagreement about whether y'all can have primarily singular reference. While y'all is sometimes used in the Southern United States as the plural form of "you", the majority of people argue that the term must be used in the singular (for example, Eric Hyman^[5]). 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", by a single person acting as spokesman for the group.)

H.L. Mencken presented the argument over whether y'all or you-all cannot have a primarily singular reference, saying that the idea that it cannot

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

See also

Look up Y'all in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Yinz
• Youns
• You
• We
• Southern American English
• English personal pronouns