by anonymous March 15, 2005
Slang contraction for the 2nd person plural pronoun, utilized amongst the indigenous populations of the southern continental United States.
Origin: Often incorrectly attributed to the contraction of "you + all," the word actually originated from the fusing of "ya + all." The kind of fella who would say ya'll for the first time would not be enunciating a clean and crisp "you" in his daily speech. "You" wasn't in his spoken vocabulary, but "ya" was. Now, try to say "ya all." It is actually not easy to do as two separate words. To say it with a normal cadence, it already almost sounds like ya'll, but with the slightest stutter. "Ya all" quite naturally slips into the familiar pronoun we all use. Ya + all = ya'll. When you look at it that way, the placement of the apostrophe after the "a" makes sense. Alternately, you + all = y'all. However, the ya + all transition more naturally illustrates the origin of "ya'll." "You all" is cumbersome, although that is usually how yall is explained to uninitiated Yankees, whose experience with "ya" is often limited. "You all" just doesn't lead the the inevitable ya'll that "Ya all" does. However, y'all is an accepted alternate spelling.
Origin: Often incorrectly attributed to the contraction of "you + all," the word actually originated from the fusing of "ya + all." The kind of fella who would say ya'll for the first time would not be enunciating a clean and crisp "you" in his daily speech. "You" wasn't in his spoken vocabulary, but "ya" was. Now, try to say "ya all." It is actually not easy to do as two separate words. To say it with a normal cadence, it already almost sounds like ya'll, but with the slightest stutter. "Ya all" quite naturally slips into the familiar pronoun we all use. Ya + all = ya'll. When you look at it that way, the placement of the apostrophe after the "a" makes sense. Alternately, you + all = y'all. However, the ya + all transition more naturally illustrates the origin of "ya'll." "You all" is cumbersome, although that is usually how yall is explained to uninitiated Yankees, whose experience with "ya" is often limited. "You all" just doesn't lead the the inevitable ya'll that "Ya all" does. However, y'all is an accepted alternate spelling.
by Ross Roberts July 01, 2005
a word that americans just cant resist saying and they say it so much! also notice how you cant say it without it sounding american
hey ya'll its addison rae here!
by jas567 October 29, 2020
by Jack Isamazing January 19, 2009
The correct spelling for the commonly misspelled word, y'all. The word originates in the south-eastern United States and is a contraction formed from the words 'ya' and 'all,' the 'ya' being the short-form of you. The apostrophe is placed after the a because in contractions, letters are removed from the second word, and thus, y'all is gramatically incorrect, leaving ya'll as the proper method of spelling the word.
by miserablestar August 31, 2007
Being a New Orleanian born and raised, ya'll is the combination of you + all, with the 'you' being shortened to 'ya' and combined with 'all'.
by LaBlue Girl October 08, 2006