news item:

You guys may not like it, but we're at a cultural watershed.

If you cringed at "you guys," brace yourselves. What you're hearing is the vibrant evolution of the American language. Yes, "you guys" is on its way to being proper speech.

Here, linguists say, is what's happening:

In English, "you" is used to address an individual or a crowd. There is no distinct plural form.

The trouble is, we want one. We have "an unconscious need," explains George Goebel, assistant editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English.

"You guys" is a product of this — as are "you all," "youse" (Irish-English), "you lot," "you 'uns" (Scots-Irish), "yins" (chiefly western Pennsylvania) and "y'all." But it is "you guys" that has taken hold.

A 2002-2003 Harvard Survey of North American Dialects, which linguist Bert Vaux authored while teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found "you guys" the default expression of choice in all U.S. regions but one. (More on that later.)

"Nowadays, very few speakers would consider 'you guys' male only," said Sean McLennan, a doctoral student in linguistics at Indiana University. He is presenting a paper this spring on the gender uses of "guy," "guys" and "you guys" to the Chicago Linguistics Society and finds evidence that even "guy" is edging toward gender neutrality.


"later" it is noted that the only real contender at this time is "y'all", and that in the South.

[from Newhouse News Service via the St. Paul Pioneer Press; edited liberally for space..]

http://www.newhouse.com/archive/Rios042104.html