Did “y’all” originate with 17th century English poetry? A particularly interesting follow-up to my letter of recommendation for “y’all” mentions my own evolution on the word in the context of a larger argument from David B. Parker, a professor at Kennesaw State University.
Illustration for the New York Times Magazine by Clay Hickson. For the New York Times Magazine, I wrote a letter of recommendation for “y’all,” a word I shied away from in my youth as a transplant from Dallas to Miami and have since circled back to not once, but twice. Here’s an excerpt: Growing up in Miami, I dreaded being . . .
Hope you’re all getting by — not a given in these times, I know. I see it’s been a very long time since I updated here, so I thought I’d post a little dispatch from my bunker of hurricane worry in Queens. Today Catapult featured my most recent Tiny Letter, “Notes From the Child of a White Supremacist.” Nicole Chung asked me . . .