spectre6000
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Knowledge about to be dropped. Strap in:
When English dropped the "thee"s, "thou"s, and "thine"s a few hundred years ago in common parlance, and more recently in formal speech, the correct for the plural of "you" became "you". It's a bit confusing. "Did you mean me, or us?"
To accommodate for the confusion, various stand-ins have evolved. The most commonly known (and probably most effective) is the southern "ya'll". Others include "you'uns", "yins", "you folks" I guess... There's a bunch of them. "You guys" is absolutely one of them, and just as correct a "you (plural)" as any other. I wouldn't be critical of its use unless you are a strict adherent to the "you (plural)" idiom, and tolerant to all the requisite confusion it brings. I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
But wait! There's more!
"Guys" in modern parlance most typically means men, but that is not at all what it originally meant. It's one of the rare words that can trace its origin directly to an individual: Guy Fawkes. He of the Gunpowder Plot, lest ye forgot. "Guys" as a pronoun originally meant someone who was subversively plotting against the government. More specifically, the British government. It's not hard to imagine how popular that imagery would have been around the late 18th century here in the US. It's widespread use eventually evolved to come to mean just a male pronoun. Why male though? Because women were not viewed as capable (or whatever) of taking part in such activity as subverting the government.
So... You feel addressing a woman with a "male" pronoun is disagreeable? "Respect her womanhood," you say? Does this mean you disagree with the "incorrect" gender of "guys" as used in the regional plural-"you"ism? Why is it that women can't plot to subvert governments, I ask you? Seems awfully backward! Plot away, ladies!
-Speaker of the "you guys" form of "you (plural)"
When English dropped the "thee"s, "thou"s, and "thine"s a few hundred years ago in common parlance, and more recently in formal speech, the correct for the plural of "you" became "you". It's a bit confusing. "Did you mean me, or us?"
To accommodate for the confusion, various stand-ins have evolved. The most commonly known (and probably most effective) is the southern "ya'll". Others include "you'uns", "yins", "you folks" I guess... There's a bunch of them. "You guys" is absolutely one of them, and just as correct a "you (plural)" as any other. I wouldn't be critical of its use unless you are a strict adherent to the "you (plural)" idiom, and tolerant to all the requisite confusion it brings. I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
But wait! There's more!
"Guys" in modern parlance most typically means men, but that is not at all what it originally meant. It's one of the rare words that can trace its origin directly to an individual: Guy Fawkes. He of the Gunpowder Plot, lest ye forgot. "Guys" as a pronoun originally meant someone who was subversively plotting against the government. More specifically, the British government. It's not hard to imagine how popular that imagery would have been around the late 18th century here in the US. It's widespread use eventually evolved to come to mean just a male pronoun. Why male though? Because women were not viewed as capable (or whatever) of taking part in such activity as subverting the government.
So... You feel addressing a woman with a "male" pronoun is disagreeable? "Respect her womanhood," you say? Does this mean you disagree with the "incorrect" gender of "guys" as used in the regional plural-"you"ism? Why is it that women can't plot to subvert governments, I ask you? Seems awfully backward! Plot away, ladies!
-Speaker of the "you guys" form of "you (plural)"
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