The word “you” used to be plural. To refer to an individual one would use “thou” or a form thereof. I regret that we’ve lost that distinction. It really isn’t possible in present culture to reestablish it. While I myself understand the various forms of the word “thou”, most people are given pause by them. More importantly, confusion results when I try to use “you” as a plural.
Now I use “y’all”. It’s never misunderstood. I say “you” to individuals and “y’all” to groups (or individuals representing groups). I pronounce it as “yawl”. I don’t think anyone even notices. If I’m in company where I believe that it won’t pass without notice (particularly where such notice would negatively impact what I’m saying), I explicitly break it back apart into “you all”. By conscious decision I never use “you” as a plural anymore.
The problem here is that our language needs this distinction. For some unknown reason, we dropped the word that otherwise clarified it. While I feel that “thou” and its forms have a better poetic sound, “y’all” is understood better. Communication would be clearer without sacrificing speech flow if we just accepted “y’all” as a proper word.
Tags: Pointless Geekery