Y'all

What follows was on my old blog for a long time, and I have occasion now to need others to have access to it.


Y’all

Contemporary English lacks a second person plural pronoun distinct in form from the singular. People of good breeding and those who would not be misunderstood feel the need of such a pronoun and substitute “y’all” or some alternative form. The purpose of using this form is to avoid confusion as to who is being addressed or about whom inquiries are made.

Primarily American Southerners and African Americans of all regions use “y’all,” which is a contraction of “you all.” No educated user of this form uses it when addressing an individual, unless that individual is viewed by the speaker as a representative of some collective, such as a family, an organization or other group. An exception to this rule is that some Southerners may use the form to charm or gull individual Yankees.

Two Southern businessmen meet at the corner of Lee and Washington Streets. They are well acquainted, but they have not seen each other in some weeks. No one else is present. Mr. Beauregard says to Mr. Early, “Well, Jubal! How are y’all doing? To which Mr. Early responds, “Just fine, thank you, Fairfax, except that Melanie had a touch of the vapors the other day. I’m doing all right, I reckon. How are y’all?” To which Mr. Beauregard answers, “Just fine also, but, of course, Old Jimmy just ain’t what he used to be. Last month I shot a duck at Mobjack, and it took him five minutes to find that bird and bring him back. Traffic at the store has picked up lately, though. Thanks for asking. Sorry to hear about Melanie. Is she all right now?”

A Northern visitor might have been mystified by these words, even without the use of the pronoun “y’all.” In both cases, when the men used the form, each was asking the other not only about his own well-being and pursuits, but about those of his family, his business, and his domestic animals. Upon which each reported as he saw fit. Mr. Early’s wife has had a “sinking spell,” that she describes politely as “the vapors,” which Mr. Early duly quotes, even though he thinks it is a silly expression. Mr. Beauregard comments on the declining gifts of his Labrador retriever, who is named after the male Atlantic blue crab. He reports on the rising fortunes of his business and then politely asks after the health of Mrs. Early. Each understood exactly what was meant by the use of “y’all” in these circumstances. If Mr. Beauregard had been acquainted only with Mr. Early as an individual, he would certainly have asked, “how are you?”

Contemporary English is the only major European language that lacks a pronoun specifically for the second person plural. “You” is the “standard” form for both the second person singular and the second person plural. Other languages, such as Spanish, German, French, and Russian, to name only a few, also have a polite form of address used when speaking to persons with whom the speaker is not well acquainted. In addition, most of these languages have distinct familiar forms for the second person singular and plural. For example, in German, a person one does not know well is addressed as Sie (pronounced “Zee”). One’s children, close relatives, pets, close friends, social inferiors and equals, and God are addressed individually as “du.” This is cognate (has the same origin) with English “thou.” When addressing two or more persons with whom one is familiar “ihr” (pronounced “ear”) is used. In early Modern English the equivalent second person plural pronoun was “ye,” as in “hear ye! Hear ye!” Historians of the English language are still debating the causes of the decline of these forms. A major cause is assumed to be the linguistic confusion that followed the Norman Conquest of England. The new Norman overlords spoke their form of French, and their English peasants were speaking their Germanic language, which is now called Anglo-Saxon or Old English. For two or three centuries there were many opportunities for misunderstanding between the peasants and their masters. Things were further shaken up by the great Black Death in the middle of the Fourteenth Century, which wiped out at least a third of the population of Britain. Formerly landless people such as merchants and some peasants found themselves in a position to trade labor for land. These newly landed people naturally aspired to the perquisites of the gentry. Those still without land were thus confused as to how to address whomever they met. To avoid offending someone who looked like a peasant but was now gentry, a wise peasant might simply use what he knew to be the polite form of address, that is, “you.”

This solution to a social problem led to another. Now there was confusion as to whether one was addressing or inquiring about one person or more than one. In time, various populations have solved this problem with new forms to stand for the old ones. In the American South, where properly polite behavior has always been prized, saying “you all” when the plural was meant cleared up the matter. This phrase was quickly shortened to “y’all,” although many Southerners will still say “you all” on occasion. In southeastern Pennsylvania, “you’ns,” pronounced “you’uns” is heard. This is a contraction of the rather less elegant “you ones.” And, of course, in parts of the northeastern United States, using the even more barbarous sounding “youse” (pronounced “yooz”) or “youse guys” avoids misunderstanding of singular and plural, particularly within subcultures where offense can have unpleasant consequences, such as the appearance of a dead fish on one’s doorstep.

Eric Dobbs, ©2004