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Bookmark or Share- What is the proper usage of "Y'all" in southern American dialectsI'm a Southerner of the "you/y'all" variety (although all y'all doesn't sound foreign), so I'm curious if you could give a couple of examples where they're addressing you personally with y'all. I sometimes wonder if it's not either a phonetic misunderstanding (e.g. a drawled 'ya' for you) or a situation where you may be the only person in the ...
- How do you write the short form of "you all"?"Y'all" is a construction limited to a couple of American dialects, particularly Southern and Western speakers. I've heard it pronounced to rhyme with "wall" (approximately--the vowel gets slightly drawn out/duplicated). There is a joke poking fun at non-prestige dialects to the effect of "Remember, y'all is singular, all y'all is plural ...
- How is y’all’dn’t’ve pronounced - English Language & Usage ...Y'all is actually spoken more like 'yaw' as in yawn. The 've is essentially 'of,' pronounced the same as the first syllable in oven. In context, it would very likely be pronounced as a simple 'uh,' similar to 'woulda, coulda, shoulda.'. So in the end, you get something like 'yawna' or 'yawdna.'.
- "all of you" vs "you all" - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeBy comparing y’all and you all in Wiktionary, now I understand what you mean by saying that “you all” is ambiguous. But I find your way of stating it as “the ambiguity of whether you mean y’all or simply you all” pretty confusing. Thank you for trying to clarify it anyway. –
- When did “y’all” become improper? - English Language & Usage ...1. The only time one should use "y'all" in "proper American English" is when one is responding to the importunate proud parents of a newborn baby who demand to know "Which one of us do you think the baby looks like?" The diplomatic answer to this is "Why, the baby looks just like y'all!" – Dilip Sarwate.
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