''Y'all'' (pronounced ) is a contraction of '' you'' and ''all'', sometimes combined as ''you-all''. ''Y'all'' is the main second-person plural pronoun in

Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...

, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also appears in some other English varieties, including

African-American English African-American English (or AAE; also known as Black American English, or Black English in American linguistics) is the set of English sociolects spoken by most Black people in the United States and many in Canada; most commonly, it refe ...

and South African Indian English. It is usually used as a plural second-person

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...

, but whether it is exclusively plural is a perennial subject of discussion.

Etymology

''Y'all'' arose as a contraction of ''you all''. The term first appeared in print sporadically in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

in the early nineteenth century,Crystal, David
''The Story of English in 100 Words''
. 2011. p. 190. though it seems to have remained uncommon throughout most of the South until several decades afterwards.Devlin, Thomas Moore (2019).
The Rise Of Y'all And The Quest For A Second-Person Plural Pronoun
". ''Babbel''. Lesson Nine GmbH. The earliest attestation, with the spelling ''you all'' and in the specific second-person plural pronoun usage, is 1824.Schneider, Edgar W
"The English dialect heritage of the southern United States"
, from ''Legacies of Colonial English'', Raymond Hickey, ed. 2005. p.284. Earliest attestations with the actual spelling ''y'all'' are from 1856, however it was likely pronounced ''y'all'' much earlier. Another notable early attestation is in the '' Southern Literary Messenger'' (published in Richmond, Virginia) in April 1858.Parker, David B. "Y'All: Two Early Examples." ''American Speech'' 81.1 (2006): 110-112. . Its usage did not accelerate as a whole Southern regional phenomenon until the twentieth century. It is not certain whether its use began specifically with black or white residents of the South; one possibility is that the term was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants to the South, evolving from the earlier Ulster Scots term ''ye aw''.Montgomery, Michael
"British and Irish antecedents"
, from ''The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 6'', John Algeo, ed. 1992. p.149. An alternative theory is that ''y'all'' is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language w ...

Gullah The Gullah () are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and cultu ...

and Caribbean creole via earlier dialects of

. However, most linguists agree that ''y'all'' is likely an original form, deriving from original processes of grammar and morphological change, rather than being directly transferred from any other English dialects. ''Y'all'' appeared at different times in different dialects of English, including

and South African Indian English, indicating it is likely a parallel but independent (unrelated) development in those two dialects.Hickey, Raymond
''A Dictionary of Varieties of English''
. 2013. p.231. However, its emergence in both Southern and African-American Vernacular English indeed correlates in terms of the same basic time and place. The spelling ''y'all'' is the most prevalent in print, being ten times as common as ''ya'll'';Garner, Bryan
''Garner's Modern American Usage''
. 2009. p.873. much less common spelling variants also exist, like ''yall'', ''yawl'', and ''yo-all''.

Linguistic characteristics

Functionally, the emergence of ''y'all'' can be traced to the merging of singular ("

thou The word ''thou'' is a second-person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in most contexts by the word '' you'', although it remains in use in parts of Northern England and in Scots (). ''Thou'' is the ...

") and plural (" ye") second-person pronouns in

Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...

. ''Y'all'' thus fills in the gap created by the absence of a separate second-person plural pronoun in standard modern English. ''Y'all'' is unique in that the stressed form that it contracts (''you-all'') is converted to an unstressed form. The usage of ''y'all'' can satisfy several grammatical functions, including an associative plural, a collective pronoun, an institutional pronoun, and an indefinite pronoun. ''Y'all'' can in some instances serve as a "tone-setting device to express familiarity and solidarity."Hickey, Raymond
"Rectifying a standard deficiency"
, from ''Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term Systems''. Irma Taavitsainen, Andreas Juncker, eds. 2003. p.352. When used in the singular, ''y'all'' can be used to convey a feeling of warmth towards the addressee.Lerner, Laurence
''You Can't Say That! English Usage Today''
. 2010. p. 218. In this way, singular usage of ''y'all'' differs from French, Russian or German, where plural forms can be used for formal singular instances.

Singular usage

There is long-standing disagreement among both laymen and grammarians about whether ''y'all'' has primarily or exclusively plural reference. The debate itself extends to the late nineteenth century, and has often been repeated since. While many Southerners hold that ''y'all'' is only properly used as a plural pronoun, strong counter evidence suggests that the word is also used with a singular reference, particularly amongst non-Southerners.

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

recognized that ''y'all'' or ''you-all'' will usually have a plural reference, but acknowledged singular reference use has been observed. He stated that plural use

Possessive forms

The existence of the genitive (or possessive) form ''y'all's'' indicates that ''y'all'' functions as a pronoun as opposed to a phrasal element. The possessive form of ''y'all'' has not been standardized; numerous forms can be found, including ''y'alls'', ''y'all's'', ''y'alls's'', ''you all's'', ''your all's'', and ''all of y'all's''.

''All y'all''

''All y'all'', ''all of y'all'', and ''alls y'all'' are used by some speakers to indicate a larger group than is necessarily implied by simply ''y'all''. ''All y'all'' can also be used for emphasis; the existence of this etymologically

pleonastic Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for em ...

form is further evidence that speakers now perceive ''y'all'' as a grammatically indivisible unit.

Regional usage

United States

''Y'all'' has been called "perhaps the most distinctive of all grammatical characteristics" of

, as well as its most prominent characteristic. Linguist

Walt Wolfram Walt Wolfram (; born February 15, 1941) is an American sociolinguist specializing in social and ethnic dialects of American English. He was one of the early pioneers in the study of urban African American English through his work in Detroit in 19 ...

and English professor Jeffrey Reaser wrote, "No word in the American English vocabulary probably carries as much regional capital." People who move to the South from other regions often adopt the usage, even when other regional usages are not adopted.Montgomery, Michael
"Y'all"
, from ''The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 5: Language''. Michael Montgomery et al. eds. 2007. Outside the southern United States, ''y'all'' is most closely associated with African-American Vernacular English. African Americans took Southern usages with them during the twentieth-century exodus from the South to cities in the northeastern United States and other places within the nation. In urban African-American communities outside of the South, the usage of ''y'all'' is prominent. The use of ''y'all'' as the dominant second person-plural pronoun is not necessarily universal in the Southern United States. In the dialects of the

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

and

Great Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...

, for example, it is more typical to hear '' you'uns'' (a contraction of ''"you ones"'') used instead.Bernstein, Cynthia
"Grammatical features of southern speech"
, from ''English in the Southern United States'', Stephen J. Nagle, et al. eds. 2003. pp.107-109. Other forms have also been used increasingly in the South, including the use of ''

you guys In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

''. Overall, the use of ''y'all'' has been increasing in the United States, both within and outside the southern United States. In 1996, 49% of non-Southerners reported using ''y'all'' or ''you-all'' in conversation, while 84% of Southerners reported usage, both percentages showing a 5% increase over the previous study, conducted in 1994.

South Africa

In South Africa, ''y'all'' appears across all

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

of South African Indian English.Mesthrie, Rajend. "South African Indian English", from
Focus on South Africa
''. Vivian de Klerk, ed. 1996. pp.88-89. Its lexical similarity to the ''y'all'' of the United States is attributed to coincidence.

Rest of world

''Y'all'' is found, in much lesser degrees, in other dialects of English, including the dialects of Maori English in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, St. Helena and

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena a ...

, and

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...

.Clarke, Sandra
"Newfoundland and Labrador English"
, from ''The Lesser Known Varieties of English: An Introduction''. Daniel Schreier, et al. eds. 2010. p.85.

References

{{Modern English personal pronouns American English Second-person plural pronouns in English Slang of the Southern United States African-American slang