linguistic note

[anotheranon]

The spread of y'all - it's not just for Southerners anymore.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I picked up y'all when Toni and I became poly as a way collectively to address all of my/someone's partners, and it's turned into a convenient plural pronoun for general use.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

The first article linked points out that there is currently no formal plural pronoun - "you" is dual purpose, and perhaps this is why "y'all" is spreading the way it is.

That, and it rolls off the tongue far more easily than "youse" :P

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

And it avoids the "sexist" 'you guys'!

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

In my Latin class in HS when declining nouns we used:

I You He/She/It
We Y'all They

Mine Yours His/Hers/Its
Ours Y'alls Theirs

Etc.

Admittedly, I went to HS in a rural southern town, but really, it worked well for distinguishing singular and plural.

And, technically, even with "thou" and "ye" there was a hole, as thou is a familiar form (much like the difference between du and sie in German).

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'm curious - how does "y'all" map to the plural possessive in Latin??

[thalionar.livejournal.com]

2nd person plural possessive:
y'all's = vestrum
"vestrum: (plur.) your, yours.
your yours; you may sing about YOUR pretty gals.

In my class, we would have translated as: you may sing about Y'ALL'S pretty gals.

(I had to cheat and look it up... it has been way too long since I had to do much of anything in Latin! http://www.sunsite.ubc.ca/LatinDictionary/)