Re: "Y'all" usage at MIT

[Randy Roberts <randolph -at- UTDALLAS -dot- EDU>]

Hal,

Having grown up in Baton Rouge, lived in New Orleans for several
years, and now transplanted to Texas (Dallas), I have no compunctions
about offering the proper use of y'all (proper use, y'all; an oxymoron?).
Y'all is plural, meaning you all.  Being a conjunction, the apostrophe
replaces the missing letters.  In this case, the missing letters are ou;
thus, y'all.  Not many folk in Louisiana or Texas use the form y'alls
or y'all's.

Randy  (randolph -at- utdallas -dot- edu)

On Fri, 4 Nov 1994, harold (h.o.n.) floysvik wrote:

> A few years ago I was on a teleconference involving several people at
> each of three locations. The moderator, being of southern extraction,
> made liberal use of "y'all". "...can y'all do this?...can y'all do
> that?...do  y'all know how to ..."  and so on. Then, she decided to get
> group concensus on the topic, so naturally she used the collective form:
>  " .. do Y'ALLS agree.". And later, not to be outdone, the posessive:
> ...that's Y'ALL'S responsibility...".

> I just love Southern! Almost as much as C'naj'un.

> (Yes, I know I also committed grave errors by putting periods both
> inside and  outside quoted phrases. That's just me. Change it if you
> must, just don't bug me about it..)

> ...Hal

> ==================================================================
> Documentation is software that runs on the human mind.

>                ...Larry S. - a programmer I once knew.
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