Dear Ferret Folks-
 
For the sake of the pure trivia enthusiasts among you, please know that
English used to have a "yall".  In Old English, there was a distinction
between "ye" (first person singular pronoun), and "thou" (first person
plural pronoun.) "Thou" was essentially "Yall", or a way to address God,
who is for some reason, often addressed in the plural.  (I'm not getting
into the religious implications of a plural God.  It's complicated.)
 
Well, the *amned French (I hear my hedgehog hissing in the background)
went and screwed it up for us.  They got into dividing "you" into fancy,
formal "vous" and informal "tu".  I guess it screwed with our heads.
Anyway, we dumped "thou" as a plural form of you under that linguistic
influence.  You'll see it in the King James version of the Bible, which
was written right around sixteen hundred, and was itself a translation
of other ancient languages, some of which required division into both
singular and plural forms of "you"
 
( Shakespeare wrote his plays around 1600, about when the King James
version of the Bible was published, and I am told he used "ye" and "thou"
much as the French did, to be fancy.  Our modern understanding of "ye"
and "thou" is largely influenced by his works, and does not always stick
to the singular/plural ye/thou.  EX: William Shakespeare to Ping:: "Get
thou out of that plant, thou blasted, thou twice damn'ed polecat!  What
evil star wert thou born under?  Wherefore?  Wert thou twisted in the
womb, that thou wouldst burrow so unbecoming?".)
 
"Thou" got kicked to the curb in modern English.  That just left us with
"you" or ye", both of which are now used as both singular and plural.
(To the extent that "ye" is used in 2005!)
 
Alex to Ping in Old English: "Verily, I shall put ye back in yonder
ferret room should ye transgress in that, my plant." (singular) Alex
to Ping and Puma in Old English: "God's wounds!  Get thou out of that
plant." (plural) (Except I might have said it in French, don't ask.
Complicated again.)
 
Alex to Ping: today "Don't you dare dig in that plant." (singular)
 
Alex to Ping and Puma: today "Don't you dare dig in that plant." (plural)
 
Ever since we dumped the plural you, we've been trying to get back to
it.  If you substitute "yall" or "youse guys" for plual "thou", it works
perfectly.
 
Alex to Ping and Puma in Old English: "God's wounds!  Get thou out of
that plant."
 
Alex to Ping and Puma in Texas: "Yall get out of that plant." (plural)
 
Alex to Ping and Puma in Boston: "Youse guys get out of that plant."
(plural)
 
It's not that the Southerners invented "yall", they just brought it back
from the dustbin of linguistic history.  Why do thay also use it as a
singular form of address as well?  As native English speakers,(yes, yes,
I realize that there is some debate, there) they have the template of
the modern combined singular and plural "you" in their heads to begin
with.  "Yall" shrinks and stretches as needed.  But it and variations of
"Youse guys" are basically the only stand alone plural "you" form that
we have in American English.
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 5043]