All Y’all

and the associative property of languages

I've been using this dumb greeting (All Y’all) for over a decade whenever I had to address a group. Instead of writing inane things like "Team" or "Friends" or the more formal, "Members of Group [X]," I would use "All Y’all" because I thought it was funny. I still do. My third grade english teacher, Mrs. Anderson, would cringe, but in the Howard family, we never cut funny even if we're the only ones laughing.

And, in case you're wondering, "All Y’all" is the plural of "Y’all" (See "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk, pg 42).

To my delight, I learned how language evolves from Joel Miller's substack (MILLER’S BOOK REVIEW).

He says that if

"Y’all"
is short for "You All"

and
"ain't"
is short for "are not"

Then, by the associative property of languages,

"Yain't"
is short for "You all are not."

This is how language evolves. Yain’t seen nothing yet.

Thus endeth the lesson.