eagle wrote:Mad Kudu Buck wrote:I was always confused by somebody saying "y'all" when only talking to one person.
"Y'all" is singular. "All y'all" is plural.
That's very Deep South, I don't think I ever have heard someone say "y'all" when addressing just one person here in Texas. Here, y'all is to address a group, just a contraction of you all, or serve the same person as "youse guys". It just fixes the flaw in standard english of both the singular and plural second person pronoun being exactly the same one. And "all of y'all" is letting a large group of people know you are addressing the group as a whole, rather than just two or more people within the group.
Regional dialects are so much fun. There was an older Oklahoman I used to work with who, upon parting, would say "I'll see y'all a while ago." I could never figure out that one. And then there was my wife's grandfather, sweetest guy, but from Tennessee, and had the thickest Appalachian accent, I could only understand about every third word.