Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Y'all is the American informal second-person plural pronoun

Spanish: "ustedes" (formal) and "vosotros" (informal in Spain) or "vos" in some regions

French: "vous" is the standard, but informally there's "vous autres" in Quebec French

Portuguese: "vocês" formally, but "cês" informally in Brazilian Portuguese

German: While "ihr" is standard, some dialects use "ihr alle" or regional variants

Italian: "voi" is standard, but some southern dialects use "vujatri" or similar variants

Greek: "εσείς" (eseis) formally, but informally "εσείς όλοι" (eseis oli)

Russian: "вы" (vy) is standard, but "вы все" (vy vse) is used for emphasis

Arabic: "أنتم" (antum) is standard, with "إنتو" (intu) in dialects

I am most fascinated by Y'alls', a double possessive or possessive plural contraction which is common in Southern American English and AAVE (African American Vernacular English) which would otherwise be constructed more awkwardly in common American English as "all of your" or "your all's."



Vous is also the polite singular second person pronoun in French so they are part way to losing the singular.

I did not know the abbreviation "AAVE" but its always struck me as odd how much a shared language has split along racial lines. I wonder whether there are similar things elsewhere. Obviously where people speak English as a second language and speak different first language they might speak it a bit differently, as might (recent) immigrant communities, but those are both very different.


In both the Midwest and the South, I often hear "you guys'" (pronounced "you guyses").

I'm enjoying you guyses thread.


Isn't that a possessive form? As in:

Waiter: "Can I get you guys's orders?"

Non-standard (as written: "you guys' "), but speakers notoriously add extraneous " 's"s.

(Sidenote: when we were teenagers my sister and I referred to one pastor as "the polytheist", because he always said "in Jesus's name", which we chose to interpret as "in Jesuses' name". God, I'm a nerd.)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: