Poll
If there is ever another war between the states, it will be over:
- Krispy Kreme vs. Dunkin’ Donuts
- Baseball vs. NASCAR
- One license plate vs. two
- Whether the second person plural pronoun is you, y’all, ya’ll, youse, you’uns or y’uns.
- Whether or not y’all is plural.
- Whether or not all y’all is redundant.
- ???
February 16th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Dunkin Donuts, Baseball, No real preference (but I think two is redundant).
For the rest: I don’t know where you’re from, but ya’ll is singular… all ya’ll is plural. All yall’s is plural possessive.
Sincerely,
ben, a southerner living in Southern California
February 16th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Some form of dispute over y’all (perhaps the merciless mocking from northerners will spark the next civil war).
February 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
If youse guys start fighting over Krispy Kreme vs. Dunkin’ Donuts, I’m moving to Canada and eating Tim Horton’s until the fightin’s over.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Y’all is both singular and plural,though all y’all is only plural; it is not redundant, but emphatic.
Youse is not plural; it’s possessive. You’uns can only be used when addresing some damned Yankee who has used we’uns, or perhaps — on rare occasions — youse guys.
February 18th, 2008 at 6:42 am
My theory is that y’all is usually plural, and always plural when preceded by all. but that the preceding all is neither emphatic nor a plural marker. Rather, it’s just a good old fashioned “all,” there to clarify that when I say y’all I really mean all of y’all, not just some of y’all. And that’s not limited to y’all or the South. We all do the same with other plural pronouns, as I just did myself by saying “we all.”
February 18th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Y’all is singular.
All y’all is plural.
Damnyankee.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
1 – KK, naturally
2 – both suck
3 – 1
And there can be no peace between our people until you embrace y’all.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:16 am
7. Microsoft vs. Apple
February 20th, 2008 at 8:52 am
y’all is a clear plural, just like vosotros in Spanish. Improper, colloquial usage will present a singular. The war will start over the definition of winter.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
8. PROFIT!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
#7 should be defining exact dimensions of
the “grits line” viz Mason-Dixon. That is to say, that part of the U.S. below which one automatically is served grits with eggs
for breakfast instead of hash browns. I maintain the line begins in D.C. and travels west through southern two-thirds of W.Va, southern Ohio{the rural parts only}hits So.Ind.{the very tip and again mostly rural, towns dir. opposite Louisville such as New
Albany, Clarksville& Jeffersonville 2/3 Hashbrown–same for Evansville). The Ill. border presents an even greater defini- tional delimma. Most people don’t realize that the northern part is further North than N.J., while the southern tip(“little Egypt”where peaches are grown) is further south than almost all of KY & So. third of Va.
SOOO….problem is most people in North consider everything from Springfield on down to be “Southern” while those in South call everyone north of, say, Mt. Vernon “Yankees.” Truth be told, the space between
the two (Central Ill.)is the “DMZ” of the grits line wherein cornbread&beans, oakra and So. fried chicken coexist with ruhbarb pie, otherwise completely bland food and other distinctly northern delights.
From Ill. Gritz line plunges down through
central Mizzou, bisecting both Okla. and Texas NE to SW in its downward plunge and
terminating near Del Rio Texas. As someone who grew up in E. Central Ill., lived for 20 yrs in Louisville, and took my AF pilot tng at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, I know whereof I speak. Annybody wanna argue?
February 28th, 2008 at 12:10 am
“Y’all” has always bugged me, and I never thought anything could be worse, until I encountered “ya’ll.” But worse than that, I’ve encountered a blog commenter who consistently types “ca’nt” — ugh!
February 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I’m cool with y’all, when it’s used in the plural. We need a pronoun for that. Using it in the singular, however, just plain grates. I put the singular y’all in the same category as the royal we (first person singular, for use by those who take themselves way too seriously), the smarmy we (second or third person singular or plural, as in “Why do ‘we’ support Policy X, which I hate” or “My, aren’t ‘we’ a ray of *&^%ing sunshine) and the politically correct they (third person singular, used to avoid saying he or she at all costs).
Then again, I’m one of those kooks who would rehabilitate ain’t as a first person signular contraction only.