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

Tom Wier <artabanos@...> wrote:
> This is in fact how Southerners deal with the fact that the standard
> language lacks the distinction.  George W. Bush, the son of the former
> President and the likely Republican nominee for the next President, was
> giving a speech yesterday in which he addressed the crowd as "you all".=
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> It occurred to me that he probably had to consciously think to use this
> form, since <y'all> has in Southern usage become fully grammaticalized,
> and so doesn't immediately lend itself to decontraction.  Certainly, =
*I*
> would have to consciously think to do this.
    However, my sister-in-law, who's from Kentucky, always uses "you =
all",
never "y'all".  She also uses "your all's" as the possesive, putting both
parts of the term into the possesive case.

> For me, ["yous"] conjures up the image of New Jersey street-toughs, =
kinda
> like in "West Side Story".
    That would be the west side of Passaic? :-)

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             Dennis Paul Himes    <>    dennis@himes.connix.com
                  http://www.connix.com/~dennis/dennis.htm
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Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance =
as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse =
96-99