What do you think, guys? Is “y’all” in trouble?
For some time, “y’all” has been assaulted by “you guys” aiming to replace it as the go-to second-person-plural pronoun in the South. Is the Solid South still holding firm at the Mason-Dixon line, or is “you guys” infiltrating and spreading like kudzu, as it is elsewhere?
I wonder because I know some claim that it is. In the Dictionary of American Regional English, the usage note for “you guys” says “orig. chiefly North; now widespread; esp freq. among younger speakers.” It backs this up with two citations that indicate the invasion has been on its way at least since the recent turn of the century:
2000 American Speech 75.417: Meanwhile, just as y’all seems to be spreading outside the South, you-guys is moving into the South, especially among younger speakers.
2002 Alcalde July–Aug 10 cTX: From this office … you can hear it in the classrooms, at the shuttle bus stops. “You guys know where this stops?” You can hear it in the bookstores and restaurants that encircle campus. “You guys know what you want to order yet?” I’m speaking, of course, about the impending death of the expression “y’all” at the hands of the address “you guys,” like an aggressive exotic species supplanting a native one.
In our South, nevertheless, “you guys” has felt pushback. It’s one of the “pet peeves” that the lexicographer Erin McKean wrote about for The Boston Globe in 2010, republished with more than 100 comments in Language Log.
Ever since “thee” and “thou” almost completely vanished from English by the 18th century, leaving the more genteel “you” to encompass the vacated singular space as well as plural, speakers of English have sought alternatives that would allow them once again to distinguish between second-person singular and plural.
One candidate is “y’all.” It goes back as far as the mid-19th century and has served as a sign of the South. The other, “you guys,” emerged around 1900 after complicated twists and turns from the name of England’s most notorious terrorist, Guy Fawkes, who almost succeeded in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605.
But back to my original question: Is “you guys” displacing “y’all” in the South — or retreating? Or is it a standoff?
And have you changed the second-person plural you use?
I haven’t done a careful study to find the answer. But I’d like to learn the situation on the ground today. So if you know the territory, could you take a moment to post your answer? Thanks!