Good Grief!

Today’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner puts to rest (sort of) the y’all–singular or plural? issue. From Doug Hill’s article (hyperlinks are mine):

The popular Texas mystery writer, Kinky Friedman, claims that, “Y’all is singular. All y’all is plural. All y’all’s is plural possessive.” But he’s an ignorant fool. The American Heritage Dictionary, always a more reliable source than someone named Kinky, defines “y’all” as “You. Used in addressing two or more people, one of whom is addressed.”

That makes sense. A quick Google brings up some other miscellaneous y’all information:

• Y’all is the modern equivalent of ye. In other words, “Here Ye!” = “Y’all hear”.

• Englishchick.com conjugates the verb to have as follows:
  

  I have
  You have
  He, she, or it has
  We have
  Y’all have
  They have

• In an effort to combat anti-Southern bigotry, the Southern Legal Resource Center has a program called Teaching Y’all Tolerance

UPDATE: This entry is not intended to mock the South in any way. I like it there. I just wanted to make that clear, since I know a few well-educated, liberal types who negatively stereotype Southerners. Just because I associate with these people does not mean I endorse their views on these matters.