A note concerning a recurring debate · 2:51am Oct 24th, 2014
So there have been several people now who have taken umbrage with my use of the word "y'all" in a singular sense. I'm going to address it now and put the issue to rest, because I'm tired of seeing it rehashed in the comments section every time I post a chapter.
The argument goes that "y'all" is a contraction of "you" and "all". This is true.
It does not, however, specify whether that "you" is singular or plural itself. The "all" might suggest plurality, or it could simply imply a certain strength of intent. It could also just be a caricature of the southern archetype. This last potentiality is why I use it.
In my stories, the Apple family will speak with a thick, heavy, deeply southern accent. This will, by it's very nature, include words like 'mite', 'heap', and 'hootenanny', because those are not words that one typically sees outside of parts of the country where the uninitiated needs a translator. It will also, from time to time, mean that Apples will use the word "y'all" to speak to just one person.
I'm sorry if that bothers you, I really am. It's a stylistic choice I make consciously, and it's not something I'm going to change. If that genuinely makes it impossible for you to keep reading, then that's just how it'll have to be. However, I'm tired of seeing comments about it in my comments section, so from now on, any comment that references it will be deleted. I put too much effort into word choice and sentence construction to have people nitpick a stylistic choice. I'm sorry, but I'm sick of the debate.
Someone bugging you about it again?
As someone from and currently living in the south, I can confirm: y'all is used as singular plenty of times. Particularly from people who play up the accent (Which in many cases are the people who like to say y'all in the first place)
Because clearly the second person plural pronoun is "all y'all".
2552484
A form in which I personally use it rather a lot, actually. I use 'y'all' singularly and 'all y'all' plurally specifically when I'm hitting my accent harder than normal.
Usually I speak like a normal human being. Sometimes ya just feel 'south-y'
2552498 I reckon y'all got a valid point there.
2552498 I once tried to use the "y'all" in my stories. Some people complained about it and I decided to remove it completely because, to be honest, i still have no idea how to correctly use it. Not being a native English speaker, makes it even harder to write the country accent.
Ya`ll is plural in my house, but by gods sakes AJ uses it singular in the show. Show cannon take pexcedent over real world use.
Yes.
In all honesty, there's canon evidence supporting your usage. In the season one episode Look Before You Sleep, Applejack uses it as a singular towards Rarity in the episode's opening. So, regardless of whether or not it's correct in the real world, we do at least know that Applejack uses the term in this manner.
2552621
Oh, my...
Welcome to my humble user page, Wanderer! I'd say I don't have fangirl jitters, but that would be a hilarious lie. What in the world possessed you to read my peevish rambling?
Use whichever works for you. "Y'all" is used both ways here in the U.S. Generally, east of the Mississippi it's used only in the plural, while to the west of the river it's used in the singular as well. Applejack and family can be modled on whichever part of the south you like.... especially since her VA's Canadian which is about as not-south as you can get.
--Spade
I'm sorry if my comment annoyed you but I was honestly trying to help. You see, half of my family is from the south (Georgia/Alabama) and whenever I would visit they would only use y'all in the plural sense. Furthermore, I never heard anyone use in the singular form while I was down there.
Granted, there are those who use it to refer to a single person. AND I've also heard AJ on the show use it that way too. Which pissed me off
but I won't get into that.
In any case, this issue has been debated since the 19th century and will no doubt continue to for who knows how long.
2552960
Your comment was not the first, it was just the tipping point. It's been a long-standing debate both in the academic world AND in the comments section of this story. I just got tired of it, that's all. I don't mind when people challenge my word choice or grammar, but I made a point early on of saying I was going to do it this way, and continuing to challenge it is unproductive and intensely annoying. Your comment was, I believe, the first time you've mentioned it, so I don't fault you for that.
2552990 Well, at least you don't have to deal with the other forms of "you-all". In the area where I live, people say "yinz" or "youse" which is FAR worse than y'all. To say the least, I cringe every time I hear people say either of those words.
It makes them sound like an uneducated local-yokel.
2552693 Hey, I've felt the exact same way when writing AJ and co.
So, I figured I'd post my monosyllabic support! 
I have some very weird and tangential thinking regarding this topic. In German, the formal "you" for both plural and singular is "Sie". I was aware of this before ever looking into "y'all", so it didn't surprise me at all to learn that "y'all" is (at least in areas of the South) generally used for singular "you" in formal situations, and just good old "you" as the singular "you" when no particular amount of respect is called for. If I'm remembering this all right.
Plus yeah, again, they actually use it like that. The argument, as I understand it, arises from the fact that they don't use it like that everywhere, so some folks are unaware. Be content to think of them as amateurs and continue on your merry way.
You know, the first time I ever encountered "All y'all", it was as a joke, and until recently, I thought that was all it was. Funny old world.
Short version of the joke - it was Japanese characters in a comic poking fun at what they thought were Americans, and asking whether "all y'all" was the plural of y'all. Joke was on them; they were talking to Canadians ;)
I can kinda see where both sides are coming from on this; when I try to write Applejack's accent, I go with "ya" for singular and reserve "y'all" for plural, despite knowing that it isn't consistently that way on the show, purely 'cos I'm a neat-freak about keeping how I write accents consistent, and I have no idea whether there's some particular subtlety I'm missing to when y'all is and isn't used as singular. (For example, whether using it that way could be considered in the same light as using intimate pronoun forms without the appropriate degree of intimacy to insult someone.)
Given that show canon is on the side of it being used for you-singular in at least some contexts, I fear that we're running into the just deserts situation (correct usage; deserts as in deserving, not barren areas.) - I once read of somewhere where just desserts was used as a pun, resulting in pedants who didn't get the joke trying to correct them. Eventually, they decided to change it to the correct spelling, deciding the pun wasn't worth the complaints. Net result, more complaints, this time from people who thought desserts was the correct spelling. Sometimes, you just can't win.
2554243
You are right. As someone who actually speaks with the aforementioned accent (some of the time, anyway), I tend to substitute "y'all" as a singular pronoun when trying to convey some sense of respect or formality, or, alternatively, when I'm trying to amp up my accent, specifically in the obverse situation, ironically enough (that is, when speaking to people I have no special esteem for, but who I want to imply a certain level of Southern Comfort with, so to speak). I guess it's hard to really win in arguments over dialect and semantics when accents and colloquialisms are concerned.
2559895
According the Dictionary itself. You All Is plural. That's grammatically speaking. In the dictionary itself. Plural.
_______________
http://mentalfloss.com/article/12916/yall-youse-8-english-ways-make-you-plural
Y'all is the southern plural you. Similar to northerners Youse, You-uns, or Yinz. It's our plural. Just like the northerners have there plurals.
__________
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/09/southern-american-english
A bit on Southern American English further stating the fact that like Northerners and other foreign languages have their plural yous. Y'all, is the southern plural you. Exception when using it in an implied plural [where talking to a single person who is in turn representing a group / organization / company].
________________
https://www.fimfiction.net/group/760/the-lunaverse/thread/134351/southern-dialect
Look at the comment section. Southern writers, actually state that it's plural. And their thoughts on people who use it wrong.
__________