It’s “y’all”, not “ya’ll”!

Posted by Mikey on June 3rd, 2007 filed in Rant

Chalk this up to me being born and raised in Mississippi and now residing in Texas, but I use the word “y’all” fairly regularly (and it IS a word).  I even use it in my writings.  It is a variant of “you all”, so it bugs me when people write it with the apostrophe in the wrong place, like this: ya’ll. 

ARGH!  Stop it!!  I have seen this several times in the last couple of weeks, and I just get annoyed to no end when I see it.  Yea, it probably shouldn’t bother me, but it does.  I really think this is a result of all those darn yankees coming down to the South not knowing how to spell our dialect! :) 

Just joking! Y’all are welcome anytime!

Mikey


3 Responses to “It’s “y’all”, not “ya’ll”!”

  1. Lucy Says:
    July 5th, 2007 at 1:17 am

    Mikey–
    I feel exactly the same frustration about the many people who misspell y’all. I’m from south Louisiana and I’m currently in an argument with a college professor here about the correct spelling. He says that ya’ll is the contraction for the slang “ya all.” I say y’all is the correct spelling of the contraction, whether you use “ya all” or “you all.”
    I’ve been looking on the Internet for a few minutes to find support for my position and it’s been crazy making. Some sites actually spell it both ways in the same article.
    Glad to see I’m not the only one sane.

  2. Ted Says:
    August 15th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    I was born and bred in South Georgia and I can tell ya how we spell ya’ll. Wait, I just did. Anyway, I didn’t know there was any other spelling until some fool tried to tell me it was a contraction of you+all=y’all. I know the grammar is right, but who says ya’ll uses proper grammar? I have found the same arguements listed above and as far as the origins go I am not sure it matters. I guess its just what you were born with and for me that means ya’ll. I am actually more upset by the y’all spelling since the only support for it seems to be that it is the “proper grammar”, but whatever works for ya.

  3. Hanna Says:
    December 10th, 2007 at 5:04 am

    Okay well, I’m from Texas. It is spelt ya’ll. No it may not be “gramatically correct” cuz it’s a conjunction blah blah blah. But how many red necks or hicks or ranch hands or cowboys/girls do you know who are “gramatically correct”? Not that we’re stupid, you’re just jealous that we act stupid in public but people still love us. If we wanted to be “gramatically correct” we could be, but that takes away from who Texans really are. Why do you think everyone thinks we have an accent? It takes too much effort to annunciate words! Just a lil insight for the Texan perspective. Slang isn’t supossed to be “gramatically correct”.

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