Most people don’t adopt a new manner of speech in their 40’s, so when my husband recently started using the phrase “y’all” I wondered what was up. It wasn’t like his Swiss parents taught him to use this slang, and he’d grown up in Colorado, where y’all is uttered only by Texas transplants.
After hearing him say y’all for something like the tenth time in a week, I asked him why he’d suddenly adopted this word, which seemed out of place spoken by someone without a southern accent. He explained that he’d started using y’all with the college ski team that he coaches. Most of the skiers are women, and he thought it would be lame to refer to them as “you guys” — the phrase more widely used here in Colorado. “English really needs a plural you,” he says.
He has a point. All of the languages I’ve studied — German, Italian and Spanish — have a plural you, and while that extra pronoun was frustrating to me as a language student, I’ve encountered plenty of times when I’ve wished for a plural you in English that wasn’t gendered or regional.
According to Mental Floss, “y’all” is just one of eight ways to construct the plural “you” in English. Others include “you-uns,” “you guys,” “you lot,” and “yous.” None of the terms on this list roll off my tongue any easier than the others.
Most of the times when I long for a plural you, it’s because I’m greeting a group of friends. My fallbacks are usually “hey guys” or “hello everyone,” but neither feels as satisfying or apt as the Swiss German phrase, “Grüezi Mitenand!” (Hello everyone!)
Why? Mostly, I’m reluctant to adopt a dialect that doesn’t feel like mine. But I long ago decided that “howdy” was a perfectly apt greeting for a stranger encountered in the wilds of the West, so perhaps it’s time I follow Dave’s lead and take up y’all too. So what if I’ve always associated the word with rednecks and cowboys? If y’all is a redneck term, it’s a gender neutral, feminist one. Just ask Tami Taylor.
*Image by mlhradio, via Flickr
As long as folks spell y’all correctly I’m game for the rest of the US adopting our lovely southern word. Nothing grouches me more than “ya’ll”.
“You lot” is the pronoun of choice for a Londoner.
I first embraced y’all when I was in college in South Carolina. And then I moved to the Midwest where people thought it was weird, and I never would have used it when I lived in New York City. It’s slipping back into my speech now that I’m living in Tennessee. I have Southern roots, so y’all feels natural, but I love it, too.
Thanks for the pronunciation tips Misti. And Ed, thanks for the tip about “you lot.” I’d never heard that one. I guess it’s been too long since I’ve been to London.
I’ve always used y’all (and, when referring to a larger group of people, all y’all). I was fascinated to hear that we can blame the Scots-Irish immigrants. It is actually a middle-English version of a plural for “you.”
Watch the History Channel’s show America’s Secret Slang. They talk about y’all at about 15:30 on this episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6cGN0RddVk
Love Tami! I wish I could say it like that.
When I lived in Aboriginal Australia, I could use ‘you mob’. But here on the east coast of Australia, where there is a different dominant culture, I always assumed that ‘mob’ wouldn’t work as well. Perhaps I should give it a test drive.
Grew up in Louisiana and Georgia so I’ve always said y’all. Or you all for more formal occasions:)
As a Texan, y’all is acceptable when speaking to more than one person. I have a relative from CA that always uses it as singular – which just fries my pie! I agree with Kim on the larger group, but I say: all ah y’all (ah = of in Texan) .
I just remembered and had to mention: Another great thing about y’all is it allows you to go completely contraction-crazy and pull a y’all’re.
in glasgow they sometimes use “youse” (pronounced exactly the same as “use”) as a you-plural and it is very easy to fall into the way of using it. Youse should consider it! 😛