Y'all Need to Start Using "Y'all"

I lived in the South for a chunk of my youth.  The high school that graduated me had the Stars and Bars as its school flag, "Dixie" as its school song.  Repulsive, right?  I know!

But Jewish lore says, "Who is wise?  The one who learns from anyone."  So that said, English needs a modern second-person plural pronoun.  None of the archaic words that once may have helped out here are usable now.  "Ye?"  Ye gawds!  But perhaps the single most identifiably Southern word in the language deserves its place in our dictionary and our style manuals: "Y'all."

My sensibilities may no longer be Southern (never mind when I was 18, I was an asshole in that and many other ways) but this remains a part of my speech and it should be a part of yours, too.

via Lawyers, Guns & Money

This article was updated on May 9, 2023

David F