Regional usage Y'all

1 regional usage

1.1 united states
1.2 south africa
1.3 rest of world

regional usage

frequency of y’all address multiple people, according survey of american dialect variation


united states

y has been called perhaps distinctive of grammatical characteristics of southern american english, prominent characteristic. people move south other regions adopt usage, when other regional usages not adopted. outside southern united states, y closely associated african-american vernacular english. african americans took southern usages them during twentieth-century exodus south cities in northeastern united states , other places within nation. in urban african-american communities outside of south, usage of y prominent.

the use of y dominant second person-plural pronoun not universal in southern united states. in dialects of ozarks , great smoky mountains, example, more typical hear uns (a contraction of ones ) used instead. other forms have been used increasingly in south, including use of guys.

overall, use of y has been increasing in united states, both within , outside southern united states. in 1996, 49% of non-southerners reported using y or you-all in conversation, while 84% of southerners reported usage, both percentages showing increase on previous study.

south africa

in south africa, y appears across lects of south african indian english. lexical similarity y of united states coincidental.

rest of world

y found, greater or lesser degrees, in other dialects of english, including dialects of st. helena , tristan da cunha, , newfoundland , labrador.