The Pronoun "Yall"

Let's begin. Nowadays, the word "you" can be used for at least three main purposes: 1) Increasingly, even among professional writers and journalists, it is becoming acceptable to use "you" as an indefinite pronoun (e. g. to be emotionally happy, you have to be spiritually happy as well). At the same time, the indefinite pronoun "one" is becoming increasingly awkward to the modern reader, and has inspired much unnecessary debate, such as the one regarding whether subsequent pronouns referencing "one" should be "he," "she," "he or she," or interchangeably "he" and "she. " All these absurd debates would be resolved if we simply allowed "you" as an indefinite pronoun. 2) "You" can be a second person singular plural (e. g. John, you are dumb). 3) "You" can be a second person plural pronoun (e. g. My friends, you are stupid). We also know these three facts: 1) English is the only major language not to have a second person plural pronoun or at the very least, an easy way around this problem. For example, in a few dialects of Spanish, "vosotros" is used as the second person plural pronoun. Most dialects of Spanish, however, do not have the luxury of this second person plural pronoun. But speakers of these Spanist dialects use the words "Usted" and "Ustedes" to compensate, which--although technically grammatically treated as third person pronouns (in terms of verb conjugation)--serve as an easy and formal way around the second person plural pronoun problem. 2) English speakers desperately want a second person plural pronoun. This is evident, as English speakers speak such phrases as "you guys" and "you all" all the time. The problem with phrases such as "you guys," however, is that. .. well, it's just that. .. a phrase, not a pronoun. "Guys" is modifying "you. " Two words, not one. 3) Language is a changing phenomenon, and millions of Americans currently use the term "yall. " Linguistic chauvinists are elitists who are not in line with the modern American. Now let's examine scenarios in which the pronoun "you" may lead to ambiguity or confusion: 1) Sally is walking alone in the mall. She has just bought, like, the most cutest pink shoes ever ever in the whole entire world. She is excited. She wants to tell someone. Luckily for her, she sees her two best friends, Barbie and Kenneth, in the hair saloon. Quickly she runs to them, and says, "Oh my god oh my god. You won't believe it. I just bought, like, the most cutest pink shoes ever ever in the whole entire world. " Now, is Sally talking to Barbie, who is her best friend? Is Sally talking to Kenneth, who is Barbie's boyfriend and whom Sally wants to take to a back alley and show what a 'good time' truly means (that celibate bitch treats him wrong! ). Or is Sally simply talking to both? We don't know. 2) I wrote the above to demonstrate that, for writers writing in the third person, this 'you' problem can prove disastrous. But also, the 'you' problem presents a conundrum in the first, second, and omniscient point of views. For the first person and omniscient point of views--especially in nonfiction writing--how is a reader to distinguish between the "you" meaning the reader whom the writing is addressing, the "you" meaning an indefinite pronoun, the "you" meaning society, the "you" addressing one character in a story, and the "you" addressing multiple characters in a story? Especially in artsy fiction (metafiction, postmodernism, etc. ), many writers have broken the fourth wall, deliberately and flamboyantly. Many have even had dialogues with their characters mid-story. This obviously presents a problem. And for fiction written in the second person? Oh, disaster awaits. If only "yall" were accepted in modern American English. 3) So, are you with me?