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All of you

Writing for BBC Worklife, Bryan Lufkin informs us as to Why more people are saying 'y'all'. For those of you who didn't know that they were, apparently they are. So there's something new that you've learned, and we've barely started!

As with a lot of Mr Flufkin's lifestyle pieces, it's the sort of thing that you'd read to the end only if you don't have a Sunday supplement to hand. The advantage of the Sunday supplement being, of course, that you can also use it to swat flies.

I carried out a word search to get his take on other versions of the term. Y'see, I have it on good authority, from a lady who hails from Baton Rouge, that all y'all is also acceptable; while a pretender used y'alls in my presence. Quite frankly, that one irritated me.

Since our correspondent lived in the [South] for several years while growing up, where I heard y'all daily, I figured that he should know. But all that he had to say on the matter was this:

The exact origins of the term ‘y’all’ are unclear, but linguists say it started appearing predominantly in the South-eastern United States centuries ago. People in the South still use the term on a constant basis to informally address a group; sometimes it’s tweaked to ‘all y’all’ (“I’m talking to all y’all”) or ‘y’all’s’ (“y’all’s wedding was so much fun”).

Bryan Lufkin, Why more people are saying 'y'all', BBC Worklife

Far be it for me to contradict an expert in the field, but his examples don't really resolve the issue. Because, while the first suggests that all y'all can be seen as a tautological variant of y'all, in the second case y'all's is possessive, in reference to the wedding.

Hey ho. I think I'll stick with what I know: all y'all is fine, if you feel the need to double down; the possessive form is y'all's; and y'alls is for the slack-brains.