Y'all Envy

     I’m not exactly sure where it happens, but somewhere between Washington D.C. and Virginia on the east coast, the expression “y’all” pops up in people’s vocabulary.  “Y’all” is a homemade contraction of “you all.”  It really slips off the tongue quiet easily and has many uses in our daily language.  “Y’all need to be quiet”  or “Are y’all going?”  It can even become a pronoun of sorts “Are all y’all wearing the same dress?” 

            What surprises me is how the expression “y’all” never traveled north.  Especially since northerners are know for speaking fast.  We love making contractions out of words or mashing words together (fuhgeddaboudit when you leave Brooklyn!)  Why can’t northerners use this expression?  In the northern states we tend to use the “you guys” expression.  The term “guys” referring to either women or men.  But “you guys” is not as smooth nor as quick as “y’all” 

            I’m sometimes jealous of people who live in the south and their liberty to use “y’all.”  But as a native New Yorker I’m afraid that if I use the term people will look at me funny or ask me if I’m from the south.  When I answer that I‘m not, they will probably question my fake southern accent.  Southerners will act as if I’m stealing their language – because I have no right using “y’all” when I have never lived in the south.  But I also think it takes a pioneer to begin using a term that is not your own. 

            Who gave the south the sole right to y’all?  And at what invisible line do people stop using it?  Just because you invent a word doesn’t mean you own it.  I challenge people living in the North to start using y’all in your everyday speech and see if it fits.   Y’all  need to see how great this expression can be for yourselves.