How do you spell "YALL"

[Taverner]

Poll question: How do you spell "YALL"

As in you all

Poll result (40 votes)
Y'all	(37 votes, 93%)	Vote
Ya'll	(3 votes, 8%)	Vote
Yal'l	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote
Yaal	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote

[datasuspect]

1. you don't

it is an illiterate bastardization of youse.

[smtpgirl]

5. dictionary.com entry

you-all (yôl) also y'all (yôl)
pron. Chiefly Southern U.S.

You. Used in addressing two or more people or referring to two or more people, one of whom is addressed.

Regional Note: The single most famous feature of Southern United States dialects is the pronoun y'all, sometimes heard in its variant you-all. You-all functions with perfect grammatical regularity as a second person plural pronoun, taking its own possessive you-all's (or less frequently, your-all's, where both parts of the word are inflected for possession): You-all's voices sound alike. Southerners do not, as is sometimes believed, use you-all or y'all for both singular and plural you. A single person may only be addressed as you-all if the speaker implies in the reference other persons not present: Did you-all have dinner yet? You and you-all preserve the singular/plural distinction that English used to have in thou and ye, the subject forms of singular and plural you, respectively (thee and you were the singular and plural object forms). The distinction between singular thou/thee and plural ye/you began to blur as early as the 13th century, when the plural form was often used for the singular in formal contexts or to indicate politeness, much as the French use tu for singular and familiar “you,” and vous for both plural and polite singular “you.” In English, the object form you gradually came to be used in subject position as well, so that the four forms thou, thee, ye, and you collapsed into one form, you. Thou and thee were quite rare in educated speech in the 16th century, and they disappeared completely from standard English in the 18th. However, the distinction between singular and plural you is just as useful as that between other singular and plural pronoun forms, such as I and we. In addition to y'all, other forms for plural you include you-uns, youse, and you guys or youse guys. Youse is common in vernacular varieties in the Northeast, particularly in large cities such as New York and Boston, and is also common in Irish English. You-uns is found in western Pennsylvania and in the Appalachians and probably reflects the Scotch-Irish roots of many European settlers to these regions. You guys and youse guys appear to be newer innovations than the other dialectal forms of plural you. See note at you-uns.

[datasuspect]

7. thanks for ctrl c and ctrl v effort

but i was just being a wiseass.

[Bucky]

19. Don't know about your wiseassin, but your sarcasteratin' is in fine form.

[datasuspect]

21. mister, i got me a whole patch of sarcastertaters

out there in the back 40.

[ghostsofgiants]

11. Youse > Y'all

Ye is pretty popular around here, though youse makes the occasional appearance in some areas.

[SeattleGirl]

2. Y'all, of course.

And if I'm addressing more than one person, it's "all y'all".

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Yaal is a Southern Devil,

first cousin of Baal.

[Bucky]

4. The first (y'all) is traditional, but I've started dropping the apostrophe

It serves no purpose, therefor it is gone.

If you've ever heard LBJ pronounce it, you know it could be spelled "yawl". But if you haven't heard LBJ pronounce it, then it's too late.

The proper etymology is "you all", not "ya all" as the erroneous, yet common "ya'll" spelling implies.

[QuestionAll...]

9. y'all is two close knit syllables, yall is one solid.

yall sounds like something a boat or ship does or has...

[Bucky]

14. Well, that's just the thing. No one I know says "y'all" w/ a glottal stop

It's just one syllable, the way most folks say it. If it was done with a glottal stop (like a quick "yuh-all") then it'd make sense to spell it ya'll. Far as I can tell, the vowell sound in the second person plural pronoun comes exclusively from the word "all" and the consonant "Y" is the same sound that you make in phrases like "How y'doin'?" or "I'm, like, from the Valley, y'know? Like, ohmygawd!"

[QuestionAll...]

24. oiy, don't get grammar teachy on me. ;)

second person plural pronoun, wot wot. heh.
altho i'm confessing I know little of this word and have actually heard it spoken less (cept movies)

you all
y'all
two distinct but fine line syllables.

as compared to yall. one syllable.

nuance.
but anyways, it's my favourite word of the day.

[supernova]

6. Y'all. Properly the contraction for "you all"

[Haole Girl]

8. Kinky Friedman quote:

Remember: Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural. All y'all's is plural possessive.

[Bucky]

16. Another example of how Friedman is a fake cowboy.

"All y'all" is used to initiate a group action (as in "All y'all get over here"). But only weak, uninformed parodies of Southerners ever use "y'all" as a singular pronoun. Friedman is a fraud--a marketing whiz, mind you--but a fraud.

[Haole Girl]

29. Thanks for the info

I wasn't aware. Really. I have only lived in Texas since 1989. And, this is not sarcasm. Truly, I thought Kinky Friedman would know!

[texanwitch]

10. Doesn't matter, I just like the word.

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Yawl. A Yawl is a two masted boat

with the aft mast stepped behind the rudder.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. I don't say it or spell it. Being from NJ, my version is "yo, you guys"

[Bucky]

17. Heh. My Philadelphia cousins used to say "youse guyse". Then they moved...

to Tennessee. Now they almost talk like regular people.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

18. Nope, the NYC/north Jersey dialect is the normal way to talk.

I find southerns weird sounding.

[NewWaveChick1981]

15. It's "y'all".

All the best Southerners know that. Contraction of "you all".

[In_The_Wind]

20. Y'all

[NewWaveChick1981]

22. Hi, Joani!

Glad to see you spell y'all the right way! Georgia girls know how to spell it!

[In_The_Wind]

23. Hi Darlin', NewWaveChick! How y'all doin'?

Of course a Southern Woman should know the correct place to add an " ' ".

[NewWaveChick1981]

25. Yes, we do!

I'm doing great! How are y'all?

[Nicole]

26. Y'all of course

The right way.

[GOPisEvil]

27. The apostrophe takes the place of letters missing...

...hence...y'all. "Ya'll" is just fucking wrong.

[txwhitedove]

28. Grew up spelling it Ya'll. Don't care what a dictionary says,

because it is not a true contraction, but more like
southern speak. Hell, even ain't is in the dictionary now,
and it is not really a word. Ya'll have a nice evening!