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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