Y'all

Y'all (pronounced yawl) is a contraction of you all, sometimes combined as you-all. Y'all is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also appears in some other English varieties, including African-American English, South African Indian English and Sri Lankan English. It is usually used as a plural second-person pronoun, but whether it is exclusively plural is a perennial subject of discussion.

History

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 19th century in the Southern United States, its usage did not accelerate as a whole Southern regional phenomenon until the 20th 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.