I’ve been learning basic Hindi, for no particularly good reason. Like a lot of languages, it has a singular form and a plural form for “you” depending on how many people you are talking about. It also uses the “plural you” when talking about single people to show respect. But then it also has “an intimate you” that is less formal than the “informal you”. It got me thinking about English “you” plurals and formality, and whether anyone still bothers with this.
For example, I have never actually heard in the wild anyone using the terms y’all, youse, yinzer, youn, thou art, etc. I have heard “you guys” a lot (even for groups of women). Anyone use or have frequently heard a similar phrase?
Y’all need to get around this big ol’ country of ours more. Haven’t heard “thou art,” but the first four I’ve encountered personally (I think the version of “Youn” I’m familiar with is “yowwen,” from Maine.)
Have heard y’all, youse, and you’uns. In the wild. I think “youse” was east coast, otherwise Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The person who used “you’ns” in Arkansas also referred to Arkansas as “Rackensack,” for fun. She is the only person I’ve ever heard say Rackensack, but I think I might have heard someone else use “you’ns.”
“Thou” is dialectical these days (West Midlands, etc.), and so are “you all” and the other variants mentioned. Standard baseline English only retains “you”, so the distinction is unfortunately lost.
That something is dialect, though, doesn’t mean that it’s “lost.” I’m fairly certain that in speech just about everywhere English is spoken the second person pronoun gets routinely marked for plural–in various ways–for various contexts. In any case, “you guys” is so prevalent that I don’t know how it could be considered dialect.
Thee (not though) was used occasionally by some Quakers but I haven’t heard that since I left Philly (and only rarely then). Here in Montreal, you only ever hear “you” singular and plural. I suppose if you must you say “both/all of you” or some such locution.
I don’t know where y’all are hearing otherwise, but here in Texas “Y’all” is strictly for two or more people. “All y’all” is only used to indicate the whole group and no less.
“Y’all have a good day, now”
“Do all y’all want tea?”
There’s a certain informality of y’all, but it’s nice to have an explicitly plural form of you. I struggled on whether to use y’all the first time I wrote an email (many many moons ago), and since it was addressed to a group, but some of those in the group were my superior or someone I didn’t really know.
But yea, Texan here, “y’all” is as common as dirt around here.
Curious where you are that y’all is ever singular. I’ve lived most of my life in North Carolina, and when I hear strange things like this I get sensitized to them (“literally” makes me twitch these days no matter how it’s used), and I’ve never heard a singular “y’all,” much less heard the word as a filler.
I haven’t spent much time in the South or in Texas. A few days in South Carolina. Aware of the stereotypical “y’all”, I didn’t hear it once. I’ve spent much more time in Maine, but didn’t hear anything there either. Canada could use more Waffle Houses though.
Guess I need to get out more. I love the Texan and Southern accents. When young I used to enjoy practice my drawling and always used “y’all”.
