Re: The future of the English second person plural (was Re: Aquestion)

On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, Tom Wier wrote:

> Barry Garcia wrote:
>
> > I have noticed among my peers that we often say either <y'all> or <you
> > guys> when we mean second person plural. I hardly ever use <you> for the
> > second person plural because to me it doesnt sound right (even though it's
> > correct). When i did my pronoun charts for my conlangs i used <you all>
> > instead of just <you> because i noticed in my language classes using <you>
> > for the 2nd person plural gets confused with 1st person singular <you>.
> >
> > Personally, i see <y'all> becomming used much more often. Especially with
> > people who come from this area (Monterey), and even the Bay Area. As my
> > generation gets older i see <y'all> being used more than <you guys>
>
> I find it very interesting that you say this, because I have always gotten the
> impression from people outside the South that it's very looked down upon,
> that educated people wouldn't be caught dead, so to speak, saying it, because
> it marks you as a "hick".  I'm happy to see that I'm mistaken in that respect. :)
Around here, that seems to be the consensus (ironic, considering most of
the people around here *are* hicks!)  It appears that yous and youguys
(sometimes yousguys, although not often) are the favorite forms of the
northern midwest.

--Patrick