Y'all are Spelling Y'all Wrong

Y'all. Credit: Tim Mossholder / UnSplash Florida, we need to talk. Too many menus, captions, signs and business posts are committing an offense against Southern civilization: spelling 'y'all' as 'ya'll.' No. Absolutely ya-not. 'Y'all' is a contraction of 'you all.' The apostrophe replaces the missing 'ou' in 'you,' leaving 'y' plus 'all.' That produces 'y'all.' Writing 'ya'll' would suggest the original phrase was 'ya all,' which basically sounds like a pirate attempting a Southern accent. Florida's Southern credentials can be complicated. We occupy the lower right corner of the United States, yet Miami may have more cafecito than sweet tea and Fort Lauderdale rarely resembles Mayberry. Still, geography has spoken. Floridians live in the South, and y'all need to respect the regional pronoun. While class is in session, let's clean up a few other repeat offenders. 'Could of,' 'would of' and 'should of' are wrong; the contractions are 'could've,' 'would've' and 'should've,' meaning 'could have,' 'would have' and 'should have.' 'Your' shows possession, while 'you're' means 'you are.' 'Its' is possessive, while 'it's' means 'it is' or 'it has.' 'Who's' means 'who is' or 'who has,' while 'whose' asks about ownership. And 'they're,' 'their' and 'there' have three separate jobs, no matter how interchangeable they appear on Facebook Marketplace. Thurr is also acceptable when referring to the 2003 Chingy song. Language evolves, regional speech deserves celebration and casual writing can break plenty of rules. But some standards preserve public decency. So, the next time your thumbs prepare to type 'ya'll,' stop, breathe and move that apostrophe one space to the left. Y'all can do this.