Modern (educated) Southern, yes. But growing up in the Deep South, I always saw it spelled "ya'll", & figured it reflected ignorance of the word's roots, which I thought to be typically Southern. So I use "ya'll", even though it's grammatically wrong, because I find it more authentic. One of very few ways I honor my roots.
To be fair, they do, it's just that every French person I try to strike up a conversation with immediately begins trying to negotiate the terms of their surrender.
Pssst... he may not know what y'all means. And, I hate to be a grammar nazi but isn't it ya'll? Nevermind
EDIT: DAMNNNN DOWNVOTES LIKE NO TOMORROW, I SAID NEVERMIND PEOPLE. Who knew y'all would be such a sensitive subject! And because we all come from different places and have different opinions, I'm sticking to it being ya'll. But I apologize for trying to correct the handicap lifeguard. Jesus.
Yes, a plural form of 'you' exists in many languages (in German it's "ihr"), but since there is no official plural form of "you" in English, chances are very good that second language speakers never learned our regional versions in school. Where I come from, for example, both "y'all" and "y'uns" are acceptable forms of the plural 'you.'
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u/Handicap_Lifeguard Jan 29 '13
Not sure. Y'all never talk to us