【使用地区】：美国南部

【释义】：

You all，the plural of“you．”y’all is widely considered the ne plus ultra of southern dialect，but this expression，used throughout the South，is much misunderstood．Mainly applied to two or more people，y’all can be used when the speaker is addressing one person，but is generally used only when the sentence implies plurality．Most Southerners would not use y’all so indiscriminately as to say，“That’s a pretty dress y’all are wearing．”But a Southerner might well say“How are y’all?”when the question is intended to inquire after the health of you and your entire family or group．Recently the American Southernism y’all has been explained，though hardly to the satisfaction of everyone，as a calque(a filling in of an African structure with material)from the West African second person plural unu，which is also used in the American black Gullah dialect．This interesting theory is advanced in a study by Jay Edwards in Hancock and Decamp’s Pidgins and Creoles(1972)：“In the white plantation of Louisiana the form y’all(semantically unu)was probably learned by white children in familiar domestic situations．”

此词意为“你们大家”，是you复数意义，即“你们”。一般普遍认为。y’all是南部方言，这一表达方式虽在南部普遍使用，却常被误解。此词主要用于两个或更多的人，y’all有时也用于与一个人的对话中，但通常只在句子中暗示复数时使用。大部分南方人不会不加选择地在下面指一个人的句子中使用y’all，如：“你穿的那件衣服真好看。”但用来问候你、整个家庭或一伙人的健康时，南方人可能会说，“你(们)好吗?”最近对y’all这个南部方言有种解释(虽然这种解释不能令每个人满意)，说它是源自西非第二人称复数unu的一个借词，并发生了变化，同时在美国黑人Gullah方言中也使用。在Hancock和Decamp1972年合编的《混合语和克里奥语》(1972)中，Jay Edwards的研究提出了这个有趣的推测，“在路易斯安纳州白人农场，也许白人小孩在熟悉的家庭情境中学会了‘y’all’的形式，意为unu(你们)。