[Publib] "You Guys"

Thu Jul 12 20:46:52 EDT 2007

I thought the 2nd-person plural was "all y'all." (But it's been a long
time since I left Texas. I could be misremembering.)

On 7/12/07, Meghan Miller Brawley <megmil at alumni.rice.edu> wrote:
> Folks in southern Missouri (or Missour-UH) say "you'uns" also, but they say
> it more like "yUNZ". And I think y'all as 2nd person plural is essential in
> English (I'm from Texas) although I never really have heard it used by
> Texans or southerners as a singular pronoun (I've heard non-Texans or
> non-southerners use it that way, though). But that could just be my
> experience, not standard usage.
>
> My 7th-grade Spanish teacher, who had a comically strong Texas twang (most
> memorable is her pronunciation of "guantes" [means gloves] as
> "guh-WAAAAAN-TAAAAAAYYZZZ") couldn't get us to figure out 2nd person plural
> at all until she told us it was the Spanish version of "y'all".
>
> -Meghan
>
>
> On 7/12/07, Abbie Anderson <libraryabbie at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I have to add my favorite from over twenty years' soujourn in southern
> Indiana:
> >
> > you'uns (say, "YOOuhNZ", with the "uh" barely pronounced--it's a very
> comfortably ellided two syllables)
> >
> > Are any of you familiar with that one?! It's "you ones" conflated,
> methinks. It's very common among southern Indiana natives, and may well be
> common in Kentucky, too.
> >
> > I rather like "y'all," which was common in Indiana as well. Or I'll go
> with "all of you", if I'm feeling energetic and grammatically correct.We
> *definitely* need a 2nd-person plural in English. And while we're all at it,
> an inclusive and an exclusive first person plural ( i.e., a "we" including
> the person I'm talking to, and a "we" *not* including the person I'm talking
> to).
> >
> > I grew up in Seattle, and am now in my forties and back in southwestern
> Washington (I work in Woodland, 20 mi. north of Vancouver WA). Out here "you
> guys" is pretty much standard practice and gender-free, although the gender
> normatization to the masculine form kinda bugs me, too, when I'm feeling
> extra literal-minded (as if we should all be male).
> >
> >
> > And we haven't even started talking about a gender-neutral 2nd-person
> singular! I think it's hilarious that usage has pretty much defaulted to
> "they", even when the context is clearly and specifically one gender over
> another and a plural pronoun is grammatically incorrect ( i.e., it would be
> both accurate and appropriate to say "she" or "he", but you say "they"
> anyway).
> >  --Abbie
> >
> >
> > On 7/12/07, Kathi Kemp-Tejeda <batonrouger2 at yahoo.com > wrote:
> > > Well, this semi-old, Louisiana native, Wisconsin
> > > resident, is on a mission to implement the Correct Use
> > > of the Second-Person Plural (y'all) to replace the
> > > gender-oblivious "you guys," the awful-sounding
> > > "youse" (plural "yousins") and other crippled excuses
> > > for the non-existent subject form.
> > >
> > > Who's with me?  Come on, y'all, let's fix this.
> > >
> > > Kathi Kemp-Tejeda
> > > Eager Free Public Library
> > > Evansville, Wisconsin
> > >
> > > --- Bruce Bumbalough < Bbumbalough at ci.grapevine.tx.us>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Well, this too old, no suit owning, non conference
> > > > going stick in the mud of a librarian grew up in
> > > > Michigan where you guys was the norm for all groups
> > > > and then moved to Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia and
> > > > finally Texas among the south of the Mason-Dixon
> > > > line extended states and he prefers y'all because it
> > > > is a more accurate statement.
> > > >
> > > > 12/2007 10:21 AM >>>
> > > > Hi, John,
> > > >
> > > > I'm from The Big Apple, and up there, we use "you
> > > > guys" when addressing a crowd, no matter its gender.
> > > >  After reading your post, though, I'm rethinking
> > > > this habit.  Since I still say "dawg" and "cawfee,"
> > > > I won't feel comfortable using the southern plural
> > > > of you:  "y'all."  I'm going to opt for an authentic
> > > > variation and say "youse" from now on. Thanks for
> > > > setting me straight.  Youse are awl good people. An'
> > > > I mean dat.
> > > >
> > > >   -- Kathleen
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > "Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to
> > > > find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill
> > > > the tasks which it constantly sets for each
> > > > individual."     -- Victor E. Frankl
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Bruce Bumbalough
> > > > Reference Librarian
> > > > Grapevine Public Library
> > > > 1201 Municipal Way
> > > > Grapevine, TX 76051
> > > >
> > > > 817-410-3404 or 817-410-3449
> > > > bbumbalough@ ci.grapevine.tx.us
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> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> >
> > --
> > **********************
> > aanderson at fvrl.org
> > Abbie Anderson, Community Librarian
> > Woodland Community Library
> > Fort Vancouver Regional Library District
> >    "The story is our guide. Without it we are blind." --Chinua Achebe
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>
>
>
> --
> **********************************
> Meghan Miller Brawley
> Graduate Student
> University of Tennessee
>  School of Information Sciences
> http://web.utk.edu/~mmille46
>
> "She flitted in and out of the Public Library with the air of
> conscientiously returning or bravely carrying off in her pocket the key of
> knowledge itself."
> -Henry James, The Wings of the Dove
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-- 
Sharon M. Foster
[affiliations omitted]
Any opinions expressed here are entirely my own.