Listen up, y'all: Perhaps even Yankees should start saying "y'all."
That's an argument put forth by Catherine Davies, a professor of linguistics at the University of Alabama, in a collection of essays titled Speaking of Alabama: The History, Diversity, Function, and Change of Language (edited by Thomas E. Nunnally). Davies' essay includes a section with the heading "A Southern Improvement to the Pronoun System."
"Well, I would say that Southern English is doing a great job," she says in an interview with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition.
Davies points out that early forms of English had pronouns for both the singular second person (thou or thee) and the plural second person (ye or you). Over time, "thou," "thee" and "ye" all fell away. In contemporary English, we now use "you" to directly address both individuals and groups of people.
The Southern contraction "y'all" ("you" + "all") brings back that plural pronoun, much like other regionalisms: "youse," "you guys," "you'uns" or "yinz."
"And it seems very useful," Davies says.
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