Quote:
Originally Posted by AlphaFrog
Here's the thing...
The rule about apostrophes, is that they EITHER replace letters OR show possession. That's it...no other function. (Technially, when we write "The ASA 's did this that and the other.", it is incorrect. I'll be the first to admit that I constantly break that rule a lot.) Since "y'all" is not possessive, then it has to be the omitting letters rule. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you all". The letters being left out are "ou", and therefore the apostrophe goes between the y and the a, and the difference between y'all and ya'll is those who know the proper usage of the apostrophe, and those who do not.
OMG...I need to go back to bed...I just wrote a dissertation on the proper gramatics of "y'all".    |
And I'm so glad you did.
I don't know where the lady was from who complained, but I got chewed out for writing "y'all" in an email to my Family Readiness Group. She told the FRSA (the assistant in charge of the FRGs) that it wasn't "professional." Well, maybe not, but it's southern dammit, and it's the way I've talked all my life, so get. over. it.