WHAT LEFT-LEANING YANKEE MOVED MY APOSTROPHE LEFTWARD?
In the scheme of things, it may never be considered earth-shaking by masses of people. And while a few might call it an egregious error, others would scoff it off as trifling, insignificant and much ado about nothing.
Me, I think the world may one day revolve around resolving the age-old dilemma: Is "you all" hyphenated into y'all or ya'll?
In other words, is the apostrophe to the right or the left of the letter a in the string of letters Y-A-L-L?
I was confronted yesterday by my glaring error of commission, or is it omission? by a commenter in my Pajamas piece on Ari Fleischer and was forced to face my indiscretion with eyes wide open and look at my biases, yet again.
I had spelled the aforementioned word ya'll as in "Shalom, ya'll," in quoting Fleischer in the article. But a commenter privately and nicely wondered in an e-mail to me if it wasn't really y'all?
Fair enough question, especially Dictionary.com correctly spells it y'all. Oh yes they do.
After sleeping on it all night, I awoke fresh and unrepentant: Indeed, I think the correct spelling of this here word is y'all. And I know I spelled it, or misspelled it in the colloquial ya'll, in my piece. And I'll bet Ari---aka R.E. or Ari Bob---spells it y'all as well since he's from the north.
However and nonetheless, I've decided to remain steadfast in my error. I take my stand forever on the right side of the letter "a!" I take my stand for ya'll, ya'll.
Yes, I'm glad the Union won the Civil War. Glad we freed slaves and gave everyone, including women, the right to vote. Glad General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox. Glad for electricity, running water, flush toilets, cell phones and computers, and a lot of other things as well.
But I'm not glad that the correct spelling of ya'll is supposedly y'all.
It must have been sneaked into the dictionary by some left leaning, politically correct linguist from the North, is all I can say. And I don't care how Ari Fleischer, George Bush, Fred Thompson Dolly Parton or Condoleezza Rice spells it,
I'm sticking by my guns on this one! It's ya'll all the way.
And that's all I have to say for now from the right side of the letter a, ya'll.
Crazy Aunt Purl weighs in.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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5 comments:
I agree, it must have been some blasted Yankee who moved that apostrophe, creating y'all from ya'll. I tell you, you just c'ant trust them Yankees.
Anyway, if anyone else has the nerve to question your spelling of ya'll, just point out that you spelled Shalom correctly! (And that's harder, right?)
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
Thank goodness for small victories....Shalom spelled correctly.
And thank you, Daniel, for keeping watch over my known penchant for misspelling.
I indeed need supervision!
Interestingly enough, it must be a conservative thing, over the years there has been a a dialogue on grammar between Bill Buckley and readers of NR. Questions posed, usages questioned. Your apostrophe falls right into that pattern. I think you are defending a your error with style and spunk but an error is an error.
P
Well yes,p,agreed. But I'm afraid my misspelling will just have to be considered a congenital birth effect, at this point!
And I know Bill Buckley would be horrified....
WebuMom,
Being a scholar of all things Southern, I did a little research. The Wikipedia entry for "Y'all" begins as follows...
"Y'all, sometimes misspelled as ya'll..."
There's an age-old Southern expression, "Don't ever contradict Wikipedia..." or something like that. Now if we could just clear up the controversy over how to spell "Hoe Cakes," or better yet, the perfect recipe for Hoe Cakes. And in case you were wondering, you'll not find it on Wikipedia. More research needed.
WebuSon
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