There's been some discussion of this on ADS-L. There appears to be regional variation as to whether you/y'all is a sg./pl. pair or there are other factors involved, including, for example, politeness and genericness. I suspect DARE would have details.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katz, Seth
Sent: 2009-08-18 14:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: If I were the language god...
Hey, Dick--
As a Northeasterner who was transplanted to NC and thence to the Midwest, I still use y'all (and I think its use is spreading). But don't you find that people use it as both a singular and a plural? Though the singular may imply something like 'you and your people.' Opinions?
Seth
Dr. Seth Katz
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Bradley University
________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Dick Veit
Sent: Tue 8/18/2009 8:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: If I were the language god...
Good one, Edith. Let's bring back the useful Old English pronoun wit ("the two of us"). In the second person, we're even more impoverished today, with only you to express singular, dual, and plural. As a transplanted Yankee in North Carolina, I am grateful for the you/y'all contrast and would extend it to pronoun-deficient regions of the English-speaking world.
Dick
On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 3:22 PM, Wollin, Edith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I would not lose the pronoun for "we two"; I don't remember what it was anymore, but I loved it. It feels so intimate and separates we two from all of the "other" we's. There are also times when it would clear up confusion. I can't quite figure out why we let it drop.
Edith Wollin
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