a question of spelling preference

[keryx]

[Poll #1302360]

I've been told this is a US regional issue, but aside from a few people from Canada, the Northeast US and Louisiana who use the second, freakier spelling ("ya'll" - what's that, a contraction of "ya" and "all"?), most everyone else seems to use the other.

Comments

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

seems to me that the second answer would be correct if you were trying to contract the entire phrase "you all will" and didn't want to say "y'all'll"

"If y'all can line up right over there against the wall, ya'll be issued a bullet to the brain for trying to push your fancy book-learning upon our children."

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I believe the best spelling in that case would be "y'a'll", but I otherwise fully support this concept.

[chubbyninja.livejournal.com]

i wasn't sure if having two apostrophes in a word/contraction was allowed, but i suppose the rules went out the window when we started working under the premise that "y'all" is acceptable.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Since "ya" is a semi-accepted shortened form of "you," I think "ya'll" could logically be a contraction of "you will" without the "all" in it. An informal spelling of "you'll," in other words.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That is certainly a well-established use of that contraction in Firefly-verse fanfiction.

[suzy-hendrix.livejournal.com]

awesome! So then, is it y'all're?