Comments | ducttapeavenger: No, I couldn't let it go.

ducttapeavenger

No, I couldn't let it go.

Jan 06, 2009 08:05

Hey folks, help techempage and me resolve a friendly debate we've been having. We're trying to determine which is the proper spelling of the contraction of "you all."

It is not necessarily the grammatically correct spelling that we are seeking (which is quite obviously "y'all"). What we want is the generally accepted common usage, that which you use and/or ( Read more... )

Comments 11

allah_sulu January 6 2009, 15:45:07 UTC

"Ya'll" is the equivalent of "you will".

"Y'all" is "you all".

thetaet January 6 2009, 15:45:34 UTC

A google search of "Y'all vs ya'll" shows that you two aren't the first ones to debate this.

Personally, I've rarely seen "ya'll". It might be a regional thing. My tendency has always been to use "y'all" because of the grammatically-correct factor more than anything else.

ducttapeavenger January 6 2009, 16:36:55 UTC

Google also reveals 16,400,000 million hits for y'all and 9,090,000 hits for ya'll. But Wayland was unsatisfied by this and somehow figured a smaller data set would be more accurate.

allah_sulu January 6 2009, 17:53:08 UTC

No matter how many people use "it's" when they mean "its", that still doesn't make it right.

regalpewter January 7 2009, 01:56:16 UTC

And please let us not open up the 'there, their, they're' conundrum.
YIS,
WRI

metricula January 6 2009, 16:11:24 UTC

It's "y'all" for a contraction of "you all"

ahavah January 6 2009, 19:25:27 UTC

It's regional, actually. Y'all would be the proper contraction of "you all", but here in NC, I've only ever seen it spelled "Ya'll".

ghibbitude January 6 2009, 19:35:56 UTC

well - to make a phonetic destinction you will have to look at it this way.. where do you pause in the word - and what is the intonation based on the intended sentiment.

Since IPA has removed the demarcation of voiceless implosives, we will have a harder time noting the different on paper.

First notice, when saids the difference between the vowel sound in Y'all and Ya'll (you all/you will).

Y'all is written as yal phonetically, as the vowel sound is uttered when the tongue is positioned low and back,sound shaped with the tongue is pressed to the rear of the mouth.

Ya'll is pronounced yɵl or sometimes yɛl, depending on dialect.

The difference lies in where the primary word breaks, of course - you-all/yoall/y'all, whereas you-will/yu'ill/yu'll or archaically you pronounced yɛ (ye) would be ye-will/ye'ill/yɛ'll

ghibbitude January 6 2009, 19:38:56 UTC

which is to say - grammarians world around agree with phoneticians and we all say y'all is you all