[yellowapple]

> I picked up y'all because there has to be SOME second person plural!

Same here. Way more elegant solution than "you guys", and less jarring to most people than, say, "youse". The only better solution would be to bring back "thou" for the singular and make "you" plural, but alas, that's unlikely to happen (and I'd be the one using "thou" and "y'all" anyway).

Of course, there are the folks who treat "y'all" as a singular second person pronoun and use "all y'all" for the plural; I've worked with quite a few of those folks.

[tempestn]

> Of course, there are the folks who treat "y'all" as a singular second person pronoun and use "all y'all" for the plural; I've worked with quite a few of those folks.

Presumably for the same reason that 'you' migrated from plural to singular in the first place. (Initially as a sign of respect/politeness/formality, then gradually becoming universal.) Perhaps someday we'll see "all y'all all"...

[baldeagle]

I use y'all for the second person plural and all y'all to when referring to multiple groups. For example: Team A will go to the left, team B will go to the right and then all y'all will charge the center on my mark.

[yellowapple]

I dig it; it's like "persons" v. "people" v. "peoples".

[mirimir]

Yes, this is how I learned it from imps.

[spc476]

I remember reading somewhere that there is a difference in meaning between "y'all" and "all y'all":

1) Do y'all have a ride? 2) Do all y'all have a ride?

In one of them (and I don't recall which definition is which) the meaning is "Do each of you own a car?" and the other one is "Do each of you have a car you can ride in?"

[throwawaysocks]

My understanding:

1 = "do all of you have a ride (perhaps shared)?"

2 = "do each of you have your own ride?"

So if Bob, Jim, and Jane are all riding in Bob's car then "y'all have a ride". But if all three of them have their own car, then "all y'all have a ride".

ymmv.