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

On Sun, 15 Aug 1999, BP Jonsson wrote:

> Isn't it the case that <you guys> is tainted by the fact that "guy" (a) is
> a noun, and (b) is of primarily masculine reference, while these problems
> don't attach to "you all"?  When I grasp for a 2.pl. pron. when writing
> English I usually use "you all", which might have to do with the fact that
> in Swedish _allihop_ "all together -- lit. 'all in a crowd!'" is often used
> to clarify that an imperative is directed to several people.  I can also
> more easily imagine something like "youl" or "yall" be adopted as a written
> form (to begin with surely as an informal phenomenon), than "youguys".
>
"You guys" could be compared with how Dutch has developed a new second
person plural pronoun, "jullie", from the equivalent of "you people".
>
>
- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

    Jesus is working out his salvation; he is about halfway there.