Date:  Fri, 20 Oct 1995 09:58:51 -0400

From:  "M. Katherine MacKinnon" <eslmkmx[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GSUSGI2.GSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: y'all are crazy



I remember a grammar teacher somewhere back in my elementary school days

in Atlanta (70's) telling us that y'all was perfectly acceptable used

plurally in spoken English, as it was merely a contraction of "you all"

and we had plenty of other contractions in English, but that singular

usage was a sign of poor upbringing and education, along with all those other

prescriptive grammar rules we were supposed to be learning. In my 28

years in the South (mostly Atlanta, with four years in east TN for

college) I don't recall ever having heard anyone use y'all in the

singular except recent transplants...who eventually restricted it to

plural only (whether from conscious or unconscious influence, I couldn't

say). All of this is, of course, anecdotal...