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

From:Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...>
Date:Saturday, August 14, 1999, 3:45
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 ____________________________________________________________________