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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