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From: Lew on 21 Feb 2010 12:56
Lew wrote:
>> y'all!

John B. Matthews wrote:
> For those not familiar with this regional variation of the second person
> plural*, see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Y'all_Water_Tower>.
>
> *Cf. All y'all.

"Y'all" is plural the way "you" is plural - i.e., it can be construed in the
singular. There are rules to that that I, as a d'ed Yankee, cannot elucidate.

--
Lew
From: Roedy Green on 25 Feb 2010 18:12
On Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:56:03 -0500, Lew <noone(a)lewscanon.com> wrote,
quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :

>"Y'all" is plural the way "you" is plural - i.e., it can be construed in the
>singular. There are rules to that that I, as a d'ed Yankee, cannot elucidate.

Standard English uses the same word "you" for singular and plural.
This works for face to face communication where the context is
relatively obvious. However, other dialects too like to be more
precise. In Canada, in Newfoundland, you say "yous" for the plural.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
~ Douglas Adams (born: 1952-03-11 died: 2001-05-11 at age: 49)
From: Martin Gregorie on 25 Feb 2010 19:12
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:12:57 -0800, Roedy Green wrote:

> On Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:56:03 -0500, Lew <noone(a)lewscanon.com> wrote,
> quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :
>
>>"Y'all" is plural the way "you" is plural - i.e., it can be construed in
>>the singular. There are rules to that that I, as a d'ed Yankee, cannot
>>elucidate.
>
> Standard English uses the same word "you" for singular and plural. This
> works for face to face communication where the context is relatively
> obvious. However, other dialects too like to be more precise. In
> Canada, in Newfoundland, you say "yous" for the plural.

Same used to be true in NZ (and maybe still is) but we spelled and
pronounced it "youse".


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |
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