Y'all

''Y'all is a contraction of you all. The spelling you-all in second-person plural pronoun usage was first recorded in 1824. The earliest two attestations with the actual spelling y'all are from 1856, and in the Southern Literary Messenger'' (published in Richmond, Virginia) in 1858. Although it appeared in print sporadically in the second half of the nineteenth century in the Southern United States, its usage did not accelerate as a whole Southern regional phenomenon until the twentieth century. It is not certain whether its use began specifically with Black or White residents of the South, both of whom use the term today; one possibility is that the term was brought by Scots-Irish immigrants to the South, evolving from the earlier Ulster Scots term ye aw. An alternative theory is that ''y'all is a calque of Gullah and Caribbean creole via earlier dialects of African-American English. However, most linguists agree that y'all'' is likely an original form in the United States, deriving from gradual processes of grammar and morphological change, rather than being directly transferred from any other English dialects. while emergence in Southern and African-American Vernacular English closely correlates in time and place. The spelling ''y'all is the most prevalent in print, ten times that of ya'll; much less common spelling variants include yall, yawl, and yo-all''. ==Linguistic characteristics==

Functionally, the emergence of ''y'all can be traced to the merging of singular ("thou") and plural ("ye") second-person pronouns in Early Modern English. When used in the singular, y'all can be used to convey a feeling of warmth towards the addressee. In this way, singular usage of y'all'' differs from French, Russian or German, where plural forms can be used for formal singular instances. particularly amongst non-Southerners. H. L. Mencken, in recognizing the typical plural reference of ''y'all or you-all, acknowledged occasional observation of the singular reference, writing that the exclusive plural usage of y'all'' Possessive forms The existence of the genitive (or possessive) form ''y'all's indicates that y'all functions as a pronoun as opposed to a phrasal element. All y'all can also be used for emphasis; the existence of this etymologically pleonastic form is further evidence that speakers now perceive y'all'' as a grammatically indivisible unit. ==Regional usage==

United States ''Y'all has been called "perhaps the most distinctive of all grammatical characteristics" of Southern American English. People who move to the South from other regions often adopt the usage, even when other regional usages are not adopted. Outside the southern United States, y'all is most closely associated with African-American Vernacular English. African Americans took Southern usages with them during the twentieth-century exodus from the South to cities in the northeastern United States and other places within the nation. In urban African-American communities outside of the South, the usage of y'all'' is prominent. The use of ''y'all as the dominant second person-plural pronoun is not necessarily universal in the Southern United States. In some dialects of the Ozarks and Great Smoky Mountains, for example, it is common to hear you'uns (a contraction of "you ones") used instead. In the Missouri Ozarks (and adjoining regions of the state), "you-all" is the preferred form, though “all y’all” may be indicated, depending upon context. Other forms have also been used increasingly in the South, including you guys. Its lexical similarity to the y'all'' of the United States may be coincidental. and dialects of St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha, and Newfoundland and Labrador, where it competes with ye or "ye all" or "all of ye". ==See also==