From Merriam-Webster.com

How y’all doing? Great? Good.

In northeast Ohio where I grew up, almost nobody uses the contraction “y’all”. We are too far north for it to be an everyday colloquialism and often consider ourselves too “educated” to use something outside the realm of grammatical correctness. If the teachers can’t accept it written in a paper, it shouldn’t be spoken aloud either.

In the North, “y’all” becomes an identifier. A red flag that tells you the speaker is a from the South or the country. I admit as a kid and young adult, I looked down on the word and never thought I’d ever use it seriously.

Data from Dialect Survey, image from Wikimedia Commons

Fast forward to now and I use “y’all” every chance I get. I love it! Before “y’all”, I mostly opted to say “you guys.” I said it to my softball team; I said it to my classmates; I said it to my skate buds. “You guys wanna (fill in the blank)?” Girls or boys or mixed gendered company never mattered. You-plural always became “you guys”.

After joining a multicultural sorority in college, I became far more critical of my go to [phrase]. I felt less and less comfortable addressing women only groups as “guys”. I started using “you ladies” in addition around this time. It was when I studied Arabic in my 4th year, I realized that English as is did not hold up with 2nd person plurals.

Modern Standard Arabic uses gendered plural pronouns for you masculine/mixed company, you feminine, they masculine/mixed company, and they feminine.

With the new context of gendered 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, I began realizing the limitations of them. Groups of men as well groups of men and women are both addressed as masculine. Men are always deferred to even in pronoun usage. This is where “y’all” plays an important role; it’s a gender neutral 2nd person pronoun.

Mind blown.

I don’t know why I never realized this before, but the contraction “y’all” fills a void in English pronoun usage. While we can all say “you all” just fine, it just doesn’t roll off the tongue the way it does when contracted. After moving to Texas, I use “y’all” with abandon!

So What?

The best part is it can be used for any plural address, even genderqueer and non-binary. Since exploring my own genderqueer identity, I have become more sensitive to strictly gendered language. Not to say any offense is taken, but I definitely notice it more than I used to. That’s why I really appreciate its wide usage here in Dallas.

While I’m comfortable with all pronouns, there are individuals who prefer “they” and “their”. Using “y’all” honors all pronouns (he, she, and they) without issue. My hope is that “y’all” becomes normalized for all English speakers, not just those with roots in the American South. Surely after reading this, y’all will appreciate it, too!

If you use “y’all” too, let me know in the comments below! When and with whom do you use it? Do you think it brings up certain stereotypes?