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How does what he said not make sense? It makes perfect sense, today girls are actors, comedians, heroes, aviators etc. even though we have (or had) the words actress, comedienne, heroine, aviatrix. Words do and have evolved.
And it is very similar to the idea of using man and mankind for humans. Those words also originated in the masculine sense, hence the "man" parts. They still came to include everyone because it was and has been accepted that way, and comes from times when women were considered below men, and from the fact that men have been considered the default. Think of it like in Spanish, a group of men is ellos, a group of women is ellas, but if a group of 100 girls has even one man with them, they are all ellos. That's just how it is in many languages, guys has come to refer to everyone in English, and people can generally easily tell if you mean men or not in context. So yeah, there is alot of basis for referring to a group of girls as guys.
As for ya'll being lyrical and poetic, that completely depends. Coming out of Rhett Butler's mouth maybe, out of the Jed Clampetts and worse, not so much. And it only makes so much better sense to you because you grew up with it, just like you guys sounds much more right to us. In England they love to look down on American English like we do among regions here, but their English isn't any more right than ours at this point, it's just pride, bias and perspective. In any case, they certainly aren't saying ya'll over there, but then, they also say theaters are cinemas, etc.
For me, I say guys, girls, people, you guys, and sometimes you all. And it's no big deal to call girls guys up here, if you actually mean just men guys, people will get you in context and alot of times it's usually said in opposition to girls when used in that sense anyway.
Mankind is short for Hu(man) kind. It's not a case of a word evolving.
Guys, on the other hand, being used in the general sense is a modern-day creation. In general, guy is a masculine noun. Go back one hundred years ago, and people even in the north and west were not saying "You guys".
By the way, "Y'all" does roll off the tongue easier than you guys, for it's one syllable instead of two.
And it's no big deal to call girls guys up here . . .
Especially when you considering girls and women in the northeast refer to each other as "you guys." That said, I wouldn't be surprised to see a poster with a secondary agenda who claims "y'all," "you guys" or whatever is better and even grammatically correct. In English, the plural of "you" is "you." Anything else is dialect, which to me makes things more interesting. Whether it's you, youse, you guys, youse guys, y'all, you all, all y'all, you'uns or yins - viva la difference!
Last edited by Pine to Vine; 08-10-2011 at 07:29 AM..
"Y'all" actually makes a lot more sense though. It's a contraction of "you all." We need to get people saying it nationwide, in my opinion. I would say it but it's not worth dealing with a reaction from people every time.
IMO northerners using 'you guys' to refer to both sexes is not much different than when some southerners use 'coke' to refer to all types of soft drinks. (I'm looking at you Tex )
I typically use 'y'all' unless I'm in a situation where I want to be more forceful, then I tend to fall back on on my native 'you guys.'
"Come on you guys, put some hustle in it!" means busines.
"Y'all need to put some hustle in it!" isn't quite as forceful to my way of thinking, it sounds more like a suggestion than a demand.
"You guys" isn't always appropriate (because I don't like saying it to a group of ladies!) but it sounds normal to me and I use it all the time. Up in northern Illinois I didn't grow up using "y'all"--I don't even think my friends from downstate used "y'all." Now when I moved to Kentucky that was different.
I like hearing "y'all" with their accent but I don't like how it sounds coming out of my mouth. There was a guy at my work who was English and new to Kentucky, and he would say "y'all"--it was really funny. I've been in the Louisville area for three years now but sometimes the term still confuses me. A coworker likes to ask me, "y'all got a lot of work tonight?" and I still look around and say, "uh, well, it's just me tonight, you know..."
I feel like I only use "y'all" but people here are starting to use "you guys" a lot too. But I noticed there's a difference. People will always say "yall" when talking about a store, business, etc: "Do y'all sell ______?" but "you guys" is becoming popular when referring to a group of people: "What are you guys up to?" Of course, it's still pronounced with a Southern accent. I use "y'all" for both situations.
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