"Accuse" is the right word. I never heard a Southerner use "y'all" as singular, though I have heard "all of y'all," which I think of as an emphatic plural, to be used when you address a group. I guess it works like Warren's mom's "y'uns" and "y'unses."
Barbara McLay
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nancy Tuten
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 5:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Y'all and all y'all
Some people accuse us here in the South of using "y'all" to refer to a single person. So what is the plural? "All y'all," of course!
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program Columbia College Columbia, South Carolina [log in to unmask]
803-786-3706
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wollin, Edith
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 3:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Y'all and you guys
I shared some of these emails with my son, who has suggested that "Dude" is also taking on the same role as "guys" in referring to both males and females. It has not moved into everyday parlance for most age groups yet, but at least on the west coast, younger people of both sexes are using it to refer to both sexes. It is often used in the phrase, "'S'up dude?"
While we are on the subject, I feel like turning over in my grave when a young female says to me, an obviously old female, "Have a good one!"
I prefer the young men referring to me as "ma'm"
Edith Wollin
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of STAHLKE, HERBERT F
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 6:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Y'all and you guys
The -uns forms, and there's a whole paradigm of them: we'uns, us'uns, you'uns, (no they'uns) them'uns. This form was, apparently, the stimulus for a very clever short novel by Robert Nathan (1960) titled The Weans.
It's a report of archeological work in North America a long time into the future, and it is both perceptive and a hoot.
You can find it, or at least part of it, at http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=2145064.
Herb
Here in Pittsburgh (Western PA), some locals refer to themselves (orally and on bumper stickers) as "yinzers" - derived from the use of "yinz" for the plural "you." This feature of the local dialect ("Pittsburghese") is viewed by locals with humor and a kind of self-deprecating pride, as in "we think it sounds awful, but this is who we are." Some local sociolinguistics have done interesting research on Pittsburghers' attitudes toward their own dialect.
There are various Pittsburghese "translation" websites (e.g., www.pittsburghese.com), one of which translates John Kennedy's famous line
as: "Ask not wah yinzes country can do fer you n'at. Ask wah yinz can do fer yinzes country."
I don't know if yinz is the same as Warren's "y'uns." Perhaps "y'uns" is more common in rural areas in Western PA?
Amanda
On 9/25/07 4:38 PM, "Warren Sieme" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> My Mom was from Western Pennsylvania. She would never think of
> referring to the plural you as "you all," or as "y'all." To her, if
> more than one of you were going somewhere, it would be, "Are y'uns
> goin' dawntawn?" If it was a really big group, it would be "y'unses"
>
>
> Warren
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Veit, Richard <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 1:57 pm
> Subject: Y'all and you guys
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> I had the reverse experience from the one Bill Spruill quoted:
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> a native Southerner, I was amused (but not very surprised) to notice
> that my students in Michigan have their own plural version as well
> ³you guys.² Itıs used for both men and women (so the ³guys² part
> doesnıt have its usual masculine connotation) and, as kind of a
> clencher for the argument that itıs acting as a unitary pronoun, the
> possessive in informal speech is ³you guysıs² (the last word sounds
> exactly like ³guises²).
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> As a freshly transplanted Northerner in Wilmington, North
> Carolina, thirty years ago, I was invited by my chair to play
> tennis. Some confusion arose about which tennis balls on the court
> belonged to whom, and when the student on the adjacent court asked me,
> ³Yıall got all yıallıs balls?² I knew I wasnıt in Iowa any more.
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> Dick Veit
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> ________________________________
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> Richard Veit
>
> Department of English
>
> University of North Carolina Wilmington
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> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
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> ______________________________________________________________________
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--
Amanda Godley, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
English Education
University of Pittsburgh
5111 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-7313
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