Can Y'all Function as a Singular Pronoun in Southern Dialect?

Gina Richardson

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Linguistic Variation and Morphology Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation Linguistics and language evolution

Abstract

DESPITE THE PROMINENCE Of the pronoun you-all, and its variant y'all, in Southern dialect, few attempts have been made to study these forms in detail.' Wider acceptance has recently been gained by two previously controversial suppositions: (1) that y'all is used by all social classes in the South (which implies that for Southerners themselves, y'all is not a stigmatized element;' and (2) that y'alls is used as the corresponding possessive form.' Little is known, however, about the historical development of y'all, its use, or even its meaning. The purpose of this paper is to specify the meaning of y'all within Southern speech by establishing the number of its referent. Y'all is known to be a second person pronoun, but its precise nature is a matter of dispute. Traditional explanations define y'all as an exclusively plural form of the pronoun you, meaning simply 'more than one'. This is the position accepted by most Southerners-that is, by the majority of the people who use y'all as part of their normal speech. Opposing analyses, while admitting that y'all is often plural, claim that it also has a prevalent singular usage. One notable argument for singular y'all is made by H. L. Mencken (1948, p. 337), who says that the notion that you-all is never used in the singular

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1979The linguistic atlas of the upper Midwest . By Harold B. Allen. 3 vols. [Minneapolis:] University of Minnesota Press, 1973, 1975, 1976. Pp. xiii, 425; 92; xii, 362.

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