The pronunciation of "you all" depends, so I was told by a professor of English language, on origin of the person or group. In other words, depending on where your ancestors came from vs, Wales, Ireland or England (perhaps even Germany) the salutation was rendered using their long forgotten dialect. This might be worth exploring further. The same applies to many of the other words such as yes'm. I doubt yawl or you-all ORIGINATED from the same source. Angus "Scotty" Robinson To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, June 27, 1999 9:05 AM Subject: You All and Yawl and Y'all >Well, I think that Steve, book or no book, is off base. You all is more like y'all, as in, "You >all come see us." I still think that it is, "Y'all come to see us." Anyway, whenever I have seen >it written in a book or an article, that is the way it is spelled. More like a contraction. > >Pat > >pam serda wrote: > >> FYI: According to my book, "How To Speak Southern", >> written by Steve Mitchell, (whick I keep right next to >> my Websters Dictionary), everyone has mispelled the >> word that means "you all". The correct spelling is >> 'YAWL'. >> >> Yawl have a good one!!! >> >> Pam >> >