a question of spelling preference

[keryx]

Poll

I've been told this is a US regional issue, but aside from a few people from Canada, the Northeast US and Louisiana who use the second, freakier spelling ("ya'll" - what's that, a contraction of "ya" and "all"?), most everyone else seems to use the other.

Comments

[zorah]

the contraction is of 'you all' - obviously, as when a Southern Mama is mad at her kids she actually draws it out into its full form.

"I TOLD YOU ALL TO STOP JUMPING ON THE BED!"

[keryx]

Well, sure. But then "ya'll" makes no sense at all.

[zorah]

i know! but then I was a temp Southerner, so I will not dispute any Louisianians on this one.

[keryx]

Hey, I'm a FULL TIME Southerner, and I have no problem calling out Louisiana for spelling fouls.

[chubbyninja]

seems to me that the second answer would be correct if you were trying to contract the entire phrase "you all will" and didn't want to say "y'all'll"

"If y'all can line up right over there against the wall, ya'll be issued a bullet to the brain for trying to push your fancy book-learning upon our children."

[keryx]

I believe the best spelling in that case would be "y'a'll", but I otherwise fully support this concept.

[chubbyninja]

i wasn't sure if having two apostrophes in a word/contraction was allowed, but i suppose the rules went out the window when we started working under the premise that "y'all" is acceptable.

[queerbychoice]

Since "ya" is a semi-accepted shortened form of "you," I think "ya'll" could logically be a contraction of "you will" without the "all" in it. An informal spelling of "you'll," in other words.

in which I try to demostrate that I learned something about grammar

[luguvalium]

My Virginia raised Latin teach explained it this way:

In English since the 2nd person singular and 2nd person plural is both you it can occasionally be confusing which one is intended. Thus y'all is actually more specific than standard english for 2nd person plural.

Only later when I took French (and going to Quaker meeting) did I learn historically the 2nd person singular had been thou or ye but was replaced by you due to some Norman court fashion thing, like the "royal We"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-V_distinction#English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralis_Majestatis

Now if I could actually speak those languages...

Re: in which I try to demostrate that I learned something about grammar

[keryx]

This is exactly the reason I use "y'all". It's clearer than using "you" for "you", "all of you" and "one" (the abstracted "you").

[quietdeath]

All ya'll makin this too damn complicated.

[keryx]

You know what you are? A FRINGE SPELLER!

[quietdeath]

?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ya'll

[keryx]

ya’ll pl.
(nonstandard) Common misspelling of y’all.

From your own link. Pfft. And hey, cool - apparently the Fireflyish use of it (as "you will") is established elsewhere, too.

[peregrin8]

It's y'all.

And the plural is all y'all.