Could 'Y'all' Fill a Gap in Modern English?

Unlike other languages, modern English doesn't have a second-person plural pronoun. Learn how 'y'all' is stepping up in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/yall.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brainstud a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
volbebam here. The term y'all is as ubiquitous in the
American South as boiled peanuts, college football, and kudzu climbing
the trees. If it were possible to hold a giant
microphone over the entire region right this minute, y'all would

(00:25):
probably be drowning out all the other words. It's as
Southern as grits, and as smooth and sweet as soft
butter on a warm biscuit. And it's inclusive. Y'all means
you all, and thus doesn't exclude anyone based on their
gender or class. Could this humble contraction turn out to

(00:45):
be the efficient second person plural pronoun the English lexicon
has long been waiting for. Of course, English has a
second person singular pronoun you, useful for addressing a solitary person,
but unlike other languages, modern English doesn't have a word
you can use to address a group of people. Back

(01:08):
in the day, ye was used as in hear ye,
hear ye, meaning listen up, y'all, or come all, ye faithful,
but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in these
are modern times, hey ye who has the Wi Fi password?
Sounds stilted. English speakers can colloquially bend the singular you

(01:31):
to apply to groups. Let's say you're getting ready to
leave a restaurant with your family or a few friends.
You could say you ready to go to the table
at large, and it would be understood that you were
addressing them collectively. But that's not super precise. So a
lot of speakers have adopted phrases or contractions to pluralize you,
like you guys around America use in the Northeast, and

(01:56):
Yann's in Pittsburgh specifically, then you lot around Britain and
Ala in the Caribbean, and then there is y'all for
the article. This episode is based on hast To Works
spoke via email with linguist Paul E. Read, PhD. Of
the University of Alabama. He explained that in the past

(02:17):
you was actually plural the now archaic thou was the
second person singular, but somewhere along the line, thou fell
away and you became singular, thus forcing English speakers of
different dialects to come up with their own ways of
pluralizing it. For a long time, now you guys has

(02:37):
been the dominant turn of phrase in most places when
addressing two or more people, but because guys is inherently masculine,
lots of people have been looking for an alternative that's
more inclusive. Of course, some feminine and non binary humans
don't mind guys, and that's cool too. How a person
would prefer to be addressed is up to them, but

(03:00):
it is a small easy thing to attempt to not
exclude anyone with your language, and certainly to change your
language if someone asks you to in that way. Y'all
has mosied its way across America and around the globe
as far as Australia. It's been picked up by everyone
from CEOs to queer advocacy groups. Since I moved to Atlanta,

(03:23):
I've certainly picked up the word and gotten ribbed by
my northern family a bit for using it. But where
did this jewel of a word that's easy to use
and flat out fun to say come from? It turns
out the exact origins of y'all are a tadhard to
pin down. Reid said. Some of the earliest attestations of

(03:43):
y'all come from English poetry in the eighteenth century, and
there are some possible attestations in the seventeenth century. It
doesn't appear very common, and it could have reflected certain
usages and was available also to fit the poetic meter.
There's about a century of distance between the English attestations
and the first American attestations in the eighteen twenties. In

(04:06):
the US, it was primarily a Southern US usage. Some
have theorized that it had the English you all origin,
and also was supported by the Scott's Irish term y'all,
which basically means the same thing you all. Once it
was in use, y'all has often been disparaged as it
made its way to regions beyond the South via caricatures

(04:28):
like the Beverly Hillbillies and musical genres like old school country,
hip hop and R and B, spreading from the ground
up for decades a Many linguists agree that y'all's current
assent and acceptance is fruit born of the grassroots dialogue
that's taken the word from social media into the mainstream.

(04:49):
Reid said the current embracing has emerged from a desire
to use non gendered and inclusive language. Since you guys
literally started out to mean only a group of men
even though many folks don't use it in a gendered way.
Many people want to use a term that's non gendered
in any way, y'all already had fairly wide usage and

(05:10):
was there to spread. Depending on how you define the South.
You're talking about tens of millions of users across roughly
fifteen states, as well as folks from the South who
moved and the great migrations African Americans and Appalachians, which
took Southern language practices to many other places. So y'all
was known further the South, and its language practices are

(05:33):
often considered friendly and polite. And you can make slogans
like y'all means all if you haven't heard that one.
It's been picked up by groups like the Southern Poverty
Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign since the early
twenty twenties to indicate solidarity amongst different justice and equality
movements in the South and beyond, and has even made

(05:55):
its way into country pop songs. It's a good slogan.
I dare say that y'all is for all y'all. Today's
episode is based on the article y'all Isn't just for
Southerners Anymore? On how stuffworks dot com, written by Kerry Tatrow.
Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with

(06:16):
how stuffworks dot com and is produced by Tyler Plang.
But four more podcasts from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app,
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