Date: Sun, 8 May 1994 21:30:15 -0500

From: Dennis Baron baron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU

Subject: Re: y'all





In response to Don Lance and Beth Lee Simon's citations of singular y'all, has

it been suggested by someone that at least in some quarters (no, not case

quarters) there's an incipient spreading of the plural 2d person pronoun to

the singular as a sign of formal politeness, exactly analogous to the "V"

forms in Romance (etc.) and presumably to "you" in earlier English? If

someone did mention this on this thread, sorry. --Larry







I believe I did, Larry, but was soundly trounced on many times for suggesting

the possibility that anyone could use ya'll as a sg, even of politeness. My

thought was that it was repeated the th-/y- pattern. I noticed that no

one objected when I claimed that NYers could youse use in the sg. But since

I'm a NYer my questions on ya'll are stonewalled. Good thing I never

use emoticons.



Dennis

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