Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 21:14:49 EST From: Terry Lynn Irons Subject: Re: 2 pl An earlier contributer contrasts y'all with you guys, asserting that it will not be replaced with the northern form. Bill writes in reply: > I have to disagree, Peter. "Y'all" has become pretty ubiquitous. I've > heard lots of folks in the Midwest use it. Southerners may have started > it but it's being picked up by other areas. > > BTW: "Y'all" may be short for "you all" but "you all" is never used by any > self-respecting Southerner. > People in the Midwest do not say y'all. They say you all, which is syntactically a phrase with a head and a quantifier, not a single lexical item, which y'all is. Y'all is not short for you all but is a distinct lexical item. What I wonder is, can the three dialects of English be defined in terms of the 2 pl. they have created as a result of the loss of the older distinction, i.e., Northern 'you guys' (youse guys); Southern 'y'all'; Midland 'youns'? -- (*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*) Terry Lynn Irons t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msuacad.morehead-st.edu Voice Mail: (606) 783-5164 Snail Mail: UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351 (*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)