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

[drownophelia]

y'all or yall. my understanding, via dorothy allison, as they word is a technical contraction common to a type of southern dialect that frequently drops many other ends-of-words (ridin, doin, sexin, somethin), the apostrophe is option. also i learned it's aint not ain't; no use in properly contracting improper english, ms allison taught me.

haha

[anonymous]

as an oklahoman and a text junkie, i can tell you its ya'll.