Five minutes on Google:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%27all

http://memphis.about.com/od/midsouthliving/qt/yall.htm

http://earlcapps.blogspot.com/2007/05/proper-spelling-of-yall.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/y%27all

Here's the problem with anyone claiming a Google search of any length as their authority in an argument. When you search for points to support your position, you are free to choose only the points which strongly support your position.

Google searches are worth about what they cost you when you base an argument on them.

Knit Wit

I find it hilarious that we're having a heated discussion over the spelling of y'all.

I dunno what the rest of y'all learnt in school, but I seem to recall somewhere that the spelling of a contraction involved leaving out some letters and putting an apostrophe where the missing letters were. Hence, "can not" becomes "can't" with the apostrophe replacing the no. Presuming y'all is a contraction for "you all" (which it clearly is), that would mean that the apostrophe goes where the letters ou were omitted.

As far as what's displayed on a sign, I think we've all seen more than our share of signs with misspellings on them. It's shameful, really, that nobody can be bothered to check a dictionary before applying paint to plywood. SWMBO, a former English teacher, is continually appalled at the public abuses of our language. And I doubt if folks in Tennessee spell any better than anywhere else.

that is not rude?

No it isn't. It may be blunt. You questioned my trustworthiness with no evidence that I'm not. That is rude.

Anyway you still didn't say-

Typo.

Bob.. "y'all" ITSELF is a regional variant and a rather incorrect.. one might even say sloppy or ignorant.. way to express the plural "you" which, in correct English, already is a plural form with no "all" added.

Not really. You all is a perfectly valid English construction. E.G., "Do you(plural) all agree?" has a slightly different meaning than "Do you(plural) agree?". And thus there is nothing inherently wrong with the contraction to y'all. Certainly y'all has evolved from a simple contraction for you all ("all y'all" roughly translates to "you all"), and that is OK since the meaning of many words evolve.

But thanks for admitting- it is fairly commonly used. Which, in my slang dictionary makes it *just as good* as that more commonly but also incorrect form of y'all.

Well thank you for admitting y'all is more common. But y'all, as noted about, isn't incorrect.

that was just in twenty minutes of google/cut and paste/post

Ah yes, your irrefutable, unquestionably authoritative cut/paste of things you found with Google.

I think it is Tennessee? Is that too far west to be true South?

No, it isn't any further west than Mississippi. It isn't generally considered to be in the Deep South or Old South. Pigeon Forge I'd consider Appalachian.

The northern part of FL, including the Panhandle, is still very southern in dialect. Central and South FL is not so much anymore.

And south Florida is part of the North that broke off in an earthquake and floated down and reattached sometime in the early 20th century. There is a vast conspiracy to cover this up since it pokes holes in the continental drift theory that says the drift is much slower than that.

And south Florida is part of the North that broke off in an earthquake and floated down and reattached sometime in the early 20th century.

Except for the segment of Miami that broke off of Cuba and floated up and reattached itself in the mid-20th century.

I am not even going to waste hours reading the arguments...
I came here because i couldn't believe someone is actually raising cain over the INcorrect spelling of Y'all.
I came to simply put my 2 cents worth in and leave it at that.
I do not care who else uses it a different way.
Some folks from SC or anywhere else in the South who may have mistakingly used Ya'll instead of Y'all may not really be from there in the first place...

make no bones about it...
I am not from California. I am not from Texas. Oh and when someone says Texas barely qualifies as being in the South... they don't mean being southerly in a geographic standpoint only. South as in THE South... as in "Dixie" or "Dixie Land".

Make no bones about it....
Y'all is a contraction of you and all and it IS spelled Y'all.
It is a Southern word from THE south. ;)
Way down south in Dixie.

*singing*
Look away, Look away.... away down South in Dixie

Goodnight Y'all

KW... old pal....
You couldn't have said it any better :)
*hugs*

I never get in a real tizzy over such until someone gets all jacked up on the authority of something "Southern" and then
they think that we real southerners don't know our Y'alls from a hole in the ground....
LOL

dixie

Oh puuuhlease!
Dollywood is more than likely run by a bunch of folks who ain't even from around here.
Just like the local hotel down the street is run by a family from India.
Yes, Dolly Parton started the place and owns the place (maybe she still does) but make no mistake...
just because something is misspelled in the south doesn't mean it's accepted.
Good grief.... many many many folks don't know how to spell Smoky Mountain correctly....
and they live right here near me...in the SMOKIES.
A billboard went up on the freeway with it spelled wrong.... it don't make it right.

I hugged Kirbert ;)

Pigeon Forge I'd consider Appalachian

That is right...
Southern Appalachia
I am purty darned close to there. :)

Maybe dialectically and culturally Texas is its own entity and not of the south. But it was a slave state and that makes it historically part of the "South".

and with book burning injected into the thread, I found a way to get to Godwin's Law. But I'm going to keep that to myself.

BTW: big ups to gay marriage supporters! y'all make me happy :)

Have you nothing better to do?
Seriously?!!
You have quoted everyone in America who don't know THEIR y'alls from a hole in the ground.

Ya is not a word. You is a word. Y'all is a contraction of You and all.

I my dear am from the South.... Southern Appalachian mountains of NC....
my entire family is and has been from the South back since the Scot-Irish settled here.
We do not use Ya. We use YOU and Y'ALL.
Ya sounds to me like something someone from way up North would say when trying to be southern.

dixie
who still needs a "noogie" button, slap button or "flick a booger" button

Thank you John :)

Oh Dixie, dear, you are fighting against a brick wall. Suzi believes herself to be the authority on every part of the US. She has a friend here and there who said this and that and that makes her know everything. Not to include the fact that she uses sources that are ridiculous (ADN for example). I just learned tis better to ignore her, unfortunately that makes her feel even more right (even when she's wrong, OH so very wrong)

By the way Dixie. I've missed you around here.

Hey Y'all...
ya know what?
To heck with all the other sources....
I wasn't gonna do this....
but since this dead horse has been beat and beat and Suzi must have her "sources"....

let's get down to what really matters....

what matters more to us than AQ?
The glossary at AQ is all **Y'all* need ;)
http://www.atlasquest.com/aboutlb/glossary/y.html

No matter how long you live here, you can be certain that you will leave with "y'all" firmly embedded in your vocabulary. And everywhere you go, it will be a dead giveaway that you once made your home in the South.

This statement is so true for me. :) I been in Yankee territory for three years and I still say y'all. I'm most likely to notice myself using it when I'm shopping. "Excuse me. Do y'all have......?"

dancing pecan

I was performing at a high school in New Orleans several years ago. A teenager asked me, "Where do y'all put y'all's stuff when y'all are on the road?"

I was enchanted!

KuKu

what matters more to us than AQ?
The glossary at AQ is all **Y'all* need ;)
http://www.atlasquest.com/aboutlb/glossary/y.html

Hmmmm, I wonder when that got added. . . :o)

KuKu

well, contrary to popular belief right now....

I didn't do it....
and it was already there when I went and looked! :)

Nope, wasn't thinking of you. You joined the conversation late.

Just wondering. . . maybe, Ryan . . .

KuKu

I said: a norm from which it variates

SuziLivvi considered my word choice incorrect and suggested: [varies]

I chose the word "variates" on purpose due to the phrase "variate from the norm". Perhaps the fact that I arranged my sentence to not end the clause with a preposition (in this case "from") confused you.

From Dictionary.com:
Variate
Va"ri*ate\, v. t. & i. [L. variatus, p. p. of variare. See Vary.] To alter; to make different; to vary.

"Variate" is a word so don't presume I meant "vary". The phrase is "to variate from the norm".

Knit Wit

You know, I'm liking "cover the basis" as in cover the basis for a discussion or argument.

For years, I spoke "for all intents and purposes" as "for all intensive purposes" until I finally saw it in print and made the connection.

You know, I like my way better!

=)

KuKu

9. I did feel naked while in Spain this spring without a weapon...but I had a flashlight...
Were you doing some night boxing? ;)

Nope no night boxing in Northern Spain for me this past trip...Maybe some this August in Southern Switzerland or definitely some in Southern Spain this September/October...btw I will be 45 minutes from the Med...swimming anyone?...be safe
BR1 who is glad to have a career that pays for letterboxing internationally...be safe y'all...
BR1

She has a friend here and there who said this and that

I haven't quoted any friends as authorities- unlike some of you (Don, Dixie, stink bob et al) who think merely their own word is good enough authority- no actual research or authority is needed.

I provide dozens of on-line examples and the response is that all those people are ignorant or stupid and that Texans don't count. What an intelligent and mature response!

I point out South Carolina folk who agreed and naturally that is ignored (Dixie- South Carolina is even more Southern than your hillbilly locale, isn't it?)

No, I just cite to the U.S. Supreme Court (on gun control) and an online debate that has been existance for years- which, unlike the AQ glossary, was not faked to provide psuedo 'authority'.

Sore losers, all of you.

Nope, wasn't thinking of you. You joined the conversation late.

Just wondering. . . maybe, Ryan . . .

KuKu

Ryan is from California and knows better to get into conversations about Southern language when he cannot even understand what half my relatives are saying to him!

-Amanda from Seattle (but born in Iredell County, NC and raised in Pender County, NC)

I was going to respond to this publicly but decided that everything I had to say was really just for you.

You have mail.

Knit Wit

SuziLivvi - have you ever even been in the southeastern US? Generally living in an area for 40+ years and "speaking the lingo" for those years gives one some authority on how that lingo is spoken. "On-line research" is dubious at best - any fool can post on the internet - but I will stand by what I've said and heard these 40+ years.

Perhaps in the future you can contain your comments to subjects that you actually have some knowledge of (yeah, it ain't proper grammer, but my fellow hillbillies know what I'm talking about ;-)).

I'm going back into the woods to box and out there no one cares when or if I say y'all or whether I'm a redneck, hillbilly or how many years I spent in higher education - or not...... I like the woods.....!!!

Mama Fox, Redneck Hillbilly

at least you can spell Iredell correctly Amanda...now why Pender County?...
Be Safe...BR1 a former Iredell resident(15 years) who married an born and raised Iredell resident...until the YOOP move...
BR1