Wednesday, October 13, 2021

What is gender neutral and all-inclusive?

"I'm just sayin, 'y'all' is both gender neutral, and all-inclusive.  In short, the perfect pronoun."  That's a quote from Erin Wathen.  I also ran across a 2017 article on "The Case for Y’all: 10 Reasons One Word Should Revolutionize Our Vocabulary.  This article says that "y’all has roots in Scotland over four centuries ago."  If you wonder why that word, maybe this illustration will help:

Saying "y'all" rather than "ladies and gentlemen" makes sense, if you analyze it.  The apostrophe stands for the "ou" in "you," just as the apostrophe replaces letters in other words:
  • "I'm" instead of "I am"
  • "You'd" instead of "you would"
  • "She'll" instead of "she will"
Did I hear some of you who live in the USA say it sounds too Southern?  Okay, but think about the fact that it's gender neutral and all-inclusive, unlike "you guys" (or "youse guys").  Y'all makes more sense than "youse guys."  As the article says, "One step for y'all.  One giant leap for all y'all."

Oh, yeah, I forget to explain about "all y'all."  This chart is for all y'all.

No comments: