Y’all is a very American English word, used almost exclusively in the southern states in the U.S.

Many years ago when I was a teaching assistant in graduate school, I thought I’d figured out when it was used.  At the time, I taught Linguistics 101 to undergraduates at the University of North Carolina. Most of the students were from North Carolina or other southern states, and at the end of every class, I would explain their homework assignment, saying something like “You need to turn it in on Monday.”

One day, a student in class came up after class, all upset. She asked why I was always picking on her when I gave out the homework assignment. Apparently, when I said “”You need to turn it in on Monday,” my eyes always fell on her and so she thought I was talking only to her. It turned out that you, for her,  was necessarily singular.  I explained that I meant it to refer to everyone. But, she asked, if I meant everyone, why didn’t I use y’all. Y’all, she explained was what one used to mean you-plural  “you” was only singular.

That was very different from my use of you in the North. What I concluded at the time was that in a Southern U.S. English Dialect circa 1985 in North Carolina, you always meant “you-singular”, and y’all always meant you-plural.

Fast forward 30 years. Chris and I stopped in a restaurant in North Carolina for lunch on our recent road trip from Florida to Maryland. Chris went in first while I parked the car, so we  entered the restaurant and encountered the host separately.  In a clear southern accent, the host said to each of us individually something like “Can I help y’all”. Y’all as a singular?!

Language change in action – or just my mis-analysis of the student’s use of y’all 30 years ago

Linguists, southerners, anyone want to comment on this? Y’all just let me know.

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P.S.  San Sebastian in Spain has a pretty extensive set of shopping streets, populated with high-end clothing stores and boutiques. One night when we were there in June a store was having a special celebration (either grand-opening or anniversary). There was a local “folk, country and blues” band (according to the poster) playing. This was Spain, and the local band was playing American folk and country; well, of course they were, the name of the band was “Howdy”, after all. Anyway, after looking them on the web, we discovered that they play only American songs, on banjo, ukelele, guitars (2), bass, violin and trombone. Here’s a clip on YouTube.; FWIW, here’s a link to their Facebook page. The banter in between songs was all in Spanish, though. It was a bit surreal to to be standing around a store in Spain hearing a group play “Oh, Suzanna” with the crowd clapping along.

However, the oddest moment was when one guy sitting in on the gig that night turned out to be an American. He triggered a somewhat spirited debate between the band members on the proper pronunciaation of the first word in the refrain of their final song,  Y’all Come.

I guess  you — er, y’all — just never know what you’ll run into when you travel.