15 hours ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
What Would All Y'all Say?
Steve Follin purports to offer 'A Lesson in Southern Lingo' (Letters, June 12), but his instructions don't track with my North Carolina upbringing. In my experience, 'you' is singular and 'y'all' the usual plural. 'All y'all,' however, is limited for special circumstances. One could approach a group and say: 'John and George, I need y'all' without ambiguity. Yet if he were to approach a group of six in which he needed only four, he would say: 'I need all y'all, except for Bill and Joe.' Separately, 'All my love to you and yours' would usually refer to the immediate family, whereas 'Give my love to all y'all' would imply a large immediate or extended family.
Andy Smith
