Answer: How is "y'all" spelled and why?

[mendax.livejournal.com]

rykaine asks, "How is 'y’all' spelled and why?"
With examples from Firefly.




rykaine has the correct answer right there in her question: “Y’all” is spelled “y’all,” not—and I’m going to repeat that for emphasis—not “ya’ll.”

I do understand where the confusion comes from. After all, we have "you’ll," "she’ll," "we’ll," "they’ll," and so on, so why not "ya’ll"?

Well, because that’s not how contractions work. A contraction takes a word phrase, removes the separation between the words, yanks out a syllable, and puts an apostrophe there instead. Note, the apostrophe always goes where the removed letter or letters were.

So we have “you” and we have “all.” Smoosh (highly technical grammar term there) them together, take out the unspoken “ou” and indicate that you did so with an apostrophe, and voila! Y’all. It doesn’t match all of those other “ll” endings because those are contractions of the verb “will” with the unspoken “wi” taken out. It’s like this:

You’ll = you + will
-Smoosh them together: youwill
-Take out the syllable nobody says: youll
-Use an apostrophe to indicate the missing letters: you’ll

Mal: You don't know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed.

Simon: Are you always this sentimental?
(“Serenity”)

Y’all = you + all
-Smoosh them together: youall
-Take out the syllable nobody says: yall
-Use an apostrophe to indicate the missing letters: y’all

Mal: Y'all are making a big deal and I would appreciate it if one person on this boat did not assume I was an evil, lecherous hump.
(“Our Mrs. Reynolds”)

This dialectal contraction is most frequently heard in the southern United States. Its use has spread (these days I hear it not infrequently where I live, which is about as far from south as it’s possible to get in the contiguous U.S.), but you’re still probably best off using it within that dialect.

Bonus lecture: Contrary to popular belief, “all y’all” is not the plural of “y’all.” "Y’all" is plural all on its own, a construction designed to distinguish between the singular and plural “you.” Rather, “all y’all” is used the same way as “all of you,” to specify every member of a group, not just some.

Comments

[lmichelle599.livejournal.com]

Good. However, I also hear both y'all down here (the South). See, I'd conjugate it y'all, both y'all and all y'all. ;)

The South is so fun. :)

[mendax.livejournal.com]

Both y'all? Now that is a new one to me. Delightful! Thank you.

[elusive-life-77.livejournal.com]

I'm from Kentucky and I have actually heard (and used) both a y'all. The 'a' being a smooshing of 'of' and pronounced 'uh'.

My Grama uses words that I can't even pronounce and I was born there!!

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Yup. Elusive has it exactly right. "Both (a) y'all" is used for emphasis, especially by parents who've had it with their two kids, in equal measure, and would like to make that fact perfectly clear.

[lady-lirenel.livejournal.com]

I, personally, am all for the increased use of "y'all" as the second person plural in English. We need a second person plural.

[mendax.livejournal.com]

We so do. Not as desperately as we need a third person non-gendered singular personal pronoun, but I'm ready to adopt "y'all" as a second person plural. :-)

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

we need a third person non-gendered singular personal pronoun

God yes! Because God needs a better pronoun than "it" or "He" or "She".

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

Amen to that!

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

We need a second person plural.

Yes. Yes, we do, and "y'all" is so much more natural and elegant than "you guys" or, heaven forbid, "yous." Which I have heard.

[skroberts]

If you could be consistent with how you reference specific words (like in "After all, we have you’ll, she’ll, we’ll, they’ll...") with either italics OR quotation marks, I think this post will be money.

Did that make sense?!

[mendax.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-) Added quotation marks.

[roslynsmuse.livejournal.com]

In southern states like Texas and Alabama, I've had people speak to me (singular) using y'all such as "I've wondered if y'all had a hard time with that project." Is that just individuals taking liberties with dialect in conversation? I've never seen a user of that term actually put it in writing anyway.

[mendax.livejournal.com]

Interesting! There is no grammatical reason to use "y'all" as a singular, but I guess I'm not surprised, given the prevalence of "y'all," to see some usage slip.

I'm so glad some people with more experience with the dialect have chimed in here to expand on the usage! Thank you.

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

If someone back in my home state of Alabama used "y'all" in the second person SINGULAR sense, they'd git looked at kinda funny 'cuz it sounds like they's a Yankee tryin' to pass fer Southern, fo' sho.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. If we hear someone use "y'all" as singular, we figure they learned all they know about the South from reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I've had people speak to me (singular) using y'all such as "I've wondered if y'all had a hard time with that project." Is that just individuals taking liberties with dialect in conversation?

No, that's not it at all. They are speaking to you, a singular person, but referring to you + whoever else was working on the project with you = a group. Y'all is therefore still plural; we Southerners understand what is meant. Northerners often do not, and thus mistake the proper use of the word.

If you overhear a Southerner saying "y'all" to one person in conversation, pay close attention to how the other Southerner responds, because the response will generally indicate that there were other people being referenced. "Did y'all have a hard time on that project?" will be answered with, "Yeah, we did, but we got it in on time."

[roslynsmuse.livejournal.com]

True, in general, the context was definitely singular on this and on other occasions. For instance, upon bidding me (a singular visitor) farewell there was this - "Y'all drive safe now!"