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All Y'all

Bitingly funny review by the always-excellent Roy Blount Jr. of Suddenly Southern: Yankee's Guide to Living in Dixie.

Particularly good dissection of the authors' thesis of "Y'all" being singular and "All y'all" sing.

Dalliance with flower of Raleigh, Jo, has given me some insight.

Brilliant actual example by Blount: 4-part conversation in supermarket queue: Blount waiting to pay for pimento cheese; dude ahead with groceries for big family; piercè young lady with a small basketful; and a bloke with paint-spattered t-shirt ("The Savior: Stronger than Nails"), also with minimum purchases.

A second line is opened:

Employee: Couple y'all come over here."
Roy B: "Fact is ...."
T-shirt: "Time he's ...."
Piercè babe: N' more'n we've ..."

All three were already moving to the new line.

New register employee: "Yeah, all y'all".

Brilliant example. Nails it.