Y'all

@earl-of-trumps said
I just think that the English language neuter gender for people.
We can say - They are going to the beach. That works fine when talking about people.
But what do we have when we talk to those people, as in, "Hey, ???". Hey youz??

Hey y'all looks pretty good to me 🙂

How about tell your friends,girls and boys, you will meet up at the park...
"I will see you at the park' is singular, it could mean that you are talking just to one of them, they will not know if you mean all of them.

"I will see you guys at that the park". So, the girls in the group may think that I am ignoring them. They will be so offended, the statement just does not close.

"I will see you all at the park". What if there are just two people? All does not quite apply. Nor would 'all of you'.

So, we are left with 'y'all, which covers all the bases, and is the least-stilted of all of the options.

@averagejoe1 said
How about tell your friends,girls and boys, you will meet up at the park...
"I will see you at the park' is singular, it could mean that you are talking just to one of them, they will not know if you mean all of them.

"I will see you guys at that the park". So, the girls in the group may think that I am ignoring them. They will be so offended, the statemen ...[text shortened]... we are left with 'y'all, which covers all the bases, and is the least-stilted of all of the options.

What age group are you talking about here? Each generation uses language differently. My " oldies walking group" in country Australia would accept any of these without taking any of your interpretations, although they'd say " you all" rather than "y'all" which sounds a bit uneducated to our ears. Do Americans choose to take offence by looking at the less obvious interpretations? Our young people say what they like and almost nobody gets hung up on it.

I'm the original grammarNazi, but I've learned not to expect others to be as observant of semantic nuances as I have. Many speech peculiarities grate on me, but I know enough not to let it bother me. My original query was related more to why you choose to use the "y'all" phrase rather than simple "you all" or "you". I had made the assumption that your word use was an attempt to imply that you were "a man of the people".

@kewpie said
What age group are you talking about here? Each generation uses language differently. My " oldies walking group" in country Australia would accept any of these without taking any of your interpretations, although they'd say " you all" rather than "y'all" which sounds a bit uneducated to our ears. Do Americans choose to take offence by looking at the less obvious interpretat ...[text shortened]... made the assumption that your word use was an attempt to imply that you were "a man of the people".

you should really get a life 🙄

@mott-the-hoople said
you should really get a life 🙄

Who asked you?

@mott-the-hoople said
you should really get a life 🙄

If we discount all of the qualifications that Kewpi interjects ….. that is, take away all of the fluff about age and her friends, etc.… It remains to simply look at my very clear and concise application of certain descriptive words to certain groups of people.
I had hoped that Kewpie would respond without parsing my simple examples, maybe responding to each of them, and maybe explaining any reasons for any exception she would have to either one of them. I think they are all worth consideration.
At least she made no ref to Trump, and I appreciate that!!!
What if I left you and Kewpie, saying “I will meet you at the park”. Would you know that I am speaking only to Kewpie? ‘You’ would not work, would it. And, It would have to be ‘You all’ if speaking to both of you according to kewpie, but there are only two of you …all does not work either.
And I am afraid that I, respectfully of course, could not refer to Kewpie as ‘guy’. Not in my nature, and it is patently incorrect.
I hope that Kewpie will think of me the next time someone calls her a guy…., or, or when she refers to one of her friends as a guy. I just find it all so strange.

@averagejoe1 said
If we discount all of the qualifications that Kewpi interjects ….. that is, take away all of the fluff about age and her friends, etc.… It remains to simply look at my very clear and concise application of certain descriptive words to certain groups of people.
I had hoped that Kewpie would respond without parsing my simple examples, maybe responding to each of them, ...[text shortened]... s her a guy…., or, or when she refers to one of her friends as a guy. I just find it all so strange.

At my advanced age, I find almost everything strange. Don't you?

@averagejoe1 said
If we discount all of the qualifications that Kewpi interjects ….. that is, take away all of the fluff about age and her friends, etc.… It remains to simply look at my very clear and concise application of certain descriptive words to certain groups of people.
I had hoped that Kewpie would respond without parsing my simple examples, maybe responding to each of them, ...[text shortened]... s her a guy…., or, or when she refers to one of her friends as a guy. I just find it all so strange.

its not the word at all, it is the fact that its use is prevalent in the south and disparaging the word by proxy is disparaging southerners ( red states if you will)'

they just trying to fly under the radar with their true intentions

@kewpie said
At my advanced age, I find almost everything strange. Don't you?

Don't go Marauder on me, segueing has ruined many a thread!!
Like, your comment makes me ponder, what is strange to me. Politically, we could discuss the tenets of liberalism and ruin my day, a most strange concept indeed. (Gimme it! Free stuf!)
But when folks segue, usually another thread is in order. Anyway enjoyed our spar.

@kewpie said
Who asked you?

no one has to ask me 😉

@mott-the-hoople said
its not the word at all, it is the fact that its use is prevalent in the south and disparaging the word by proxy is disparaging southerners ( red states if you will)'

they just trying to fly under the radar with their true intentions

But you're not paranoid at all...

@suzianne said
But you're not paranoid at all...

sry, I was just axing