(no subject)

[cyrano]

Posted as a query for the southerners on my list (both of them?):

If somebody types it out as ya'll, have they ever actually spoken the word? Or is this just one of those things where people can't spell?

Comments

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that's just a run-of-the-mill incompetence with apostrophes and contractions. It's not like you say it as "y - all" (at least not around here). It's one syllable: "yall".

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm a freak and I keep looking at it and thinking 'If... if you keep the ya part then you're pronouncing it *yull* with that schwa noncomittal vowel sound and I'm certain that's not what you mean'.
But I really really ought to be used to that sort of thing by now.

[mostuff.livejournal.com]

Everyone I know who has typed it out spells it as "y'all" (a contraction of "you all"). Those who type "ya'll" don't know the proper place for the apostrophe.

As stated above, it is pronounced as one syllable, "yall".

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I like the people you know, then. (:

[rightkindofme.livejournal.com]

I know the proper place for the apostrophe but I have grown up seeing it as "ya'll" so I still type it that way. There are many funky/odd things in English so I don't really feel like a colloquialism is a statement about overall intelligence or education.

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

Plenty of people who say it on a daily basis screw up the orthography. It's just one of those stupid, annoying mistakes people make.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

MMmmm. She said 'orthography'.

[mostuff.livejournal.com]

Such a sexy word, orthography.

[goth-hobbit.livejournal.com]

I type it out as y'all (abbrebiated colloquial form of "you all".) They may have spoken it, but may not have seen it written out. Could be an unintentionally misplaced apostrophe -- typos happen. Or, they simply may not have a clue.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to go with the latter, but I'm kind of a misanthrope.

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that's the main issue, especially for people who grew up saying it--it's the sort of thing that you say far more often than you see written out.

[roisnoir.livejournal.com]

I agree with "y'all."

And yes, I used to say it. *grin*

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

As of late (as in, the last few years), I've adopted it unconsciously. It feels more comfortable than 'youse guys' or 'you lot there'.

[roisnoir.livejournal.com]

Every now and then, I've caught myself thinking it, but I don't believe I've used it in a non-deliberate way in 15-odd years.

[goth-hobbit.livejournal.com]

And, it would appear that you have more than two Southerners on your list. ;) Either that, or an above-average percentage of linguistics nerds.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I love topics like this that bring 'em out of the woodwork. (:
(Either category.)

[9thmoon.livejournal.com]

I am not a southerner (nor am I a yankee, according to the locals - since I'm from the west, I am a "hippy") but that person can't spell.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, luckily we appear to be exempt from the Southerner/Yankee schism. (: I am hoping someday to be accorded the 'Honorary Southerner' honor.

[tnalpgge.livejournal.com]

Now that I have Texan in-laws, my understanding of "y'all" and "all y'all" has deepened significantly. Don't think it makes me an Honorary Southerner though, as I'm some egghead yellow-bellied bleeding-heart liberal communist from a non-Confederate state. Or so some would have me believe.

[wildpaletz.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I have, in fact, been both saying y'all for decades AND spelling it (wrong?) ya'll...and it's not just me, it's also the folks I work with from Huntsville, AL, and Houston, TX. Wonder why.

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it decidedly "yah-all" (two syllables), so the ya'll makes perfect sense to me. The ' represents the second soft vowel sound, and could just as easily be spelled out "ya all".

I suppose if the assumed pronunciation is "yawl", the y'all spelling makes more sense.

But I don't do it that way. :)

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I'd need much more data than a single misspelled word to tell you where the person was from.

As for whether the person is a poor typist or a lousy speller ... again, not enough information.

[eyelessgame.livejournal.com]

"ya'll" is a contraction of "ya will", where 'ya' is either a foreign word referring to some agent or entity, or a weird dialect version of 'you'.

"y'all" is the second person plural, a word otherwise sadly lacking in mainstream spoken and written English ever since second person singular (thee/thou) vanished and second person plural/familiar took over all second person duties. In southern dialect, this word, unlike 'shit', has only one syllable. Typical usage: "Kin ah he'p y'all?"

In the Northeast, second person plural is "youz", sometimes spelled "youse" but rhyming with "booze", not "mouse".

It's not uncommon to hear "you all" or "you guys" ('guys' being its own weird non-ungendered ungendered self: "even *guys* use 'guys' to refer to a group of women") in other parts of the Amerenglish speaking world. We need a pronoun here.

[tnalpgge.livejournal.com]

I have heard unconfirmed rumors of "yinz" being a second person plural around Pittsburgh, PA. Never heard it in practice, probably because I haven't been within 100 miles of the place, ever.

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

All y'all jabberin' on on this makes me wonder if the great language maven, William Safire has ever tackled the subject.

[mostuff.livejournal.com]

He mentions it as an example of "Slurvian" or slurred speech:

"Slurvian is not limited to New York City. The most famous example of slurred speech embodied in dialect is the Southern y'all, which has its equivalent in New York Slurvian alluhyuz. (That's if the emphasis is on the all; if the speaker wishes to stress the plural you, the phrase becomes alluhyooz.) And in California, g'yonit signifies "get on it," meaning "get moving." "

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000917mag-onlanguage.html

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've only been here for ten years, but not a single person has yet told me to g'yonit.

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

I'm a native, and I never knew g'yonit.

(Though the whole Slurvian thing is fascinating.)

How do you all do?

[katchoo-too.livejournal.com]

Okay... so I am way behind on LJ....
I found myself typing ya'll ... looking at it... scratching my head and changing it to y'all about 2 weeks ago. I use it for you all and know that the apostrophe goes after the y, but that doesn't actually feel correct.
Maybe it is a southern thing. Of course I thought yall was a southern word, like howdy. Come to think of it... Howdy is probably a slurred "How do" as in "How do you do."