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

artabanos@mail.utexas.edu writes:
>
>(b) this is complicated by the fact that, in the US, <y'all> is also the
>default plural pronoun for African American communities, for not so
>suprising reasons (the Black migration north and west after the Civil War
>and at other times, too).  So, it also has some currency outside the
>South,
>though I can't really envision its spreading outside North America anytime
>soon.  <you guys> also has some currency in the South, because it's
>seen by some as less dialectal (it's certainly less region-specific).
>
>There is, of course, the outside chance that people will continue to
>tolerate
>the ambiguity of having no plural specific pronoun.  I find this
>unlikely, because
>everyone I know uses one of the two, and I personally couldn't imagine not
>seeing a need for one (although I am of course very biased in this
>respect).
>
>At any rate, that's situation as I see it.
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>


____________________________________________________________________

     "Raw to the floor like reservoir dogs"  - A.V. Helden
____________________________________________________________________