你一定吐槽過(guò)英語(yǔ)里沒(méi)有“你們”這個(gè)詞，一個(gè)you到底是“你”，還是“你們”，還得根據(jù)上下文推理半天。
不過(guò)事實(shí)是，美國(guó)南方口語(yǔ)里還真有“你們”這個(gè)詞——“Y'all”，發(fā)音是[j?:l]。
而且這個(gè)詞近來(lái)已經(jīng)沖出南部，走向全國(guó)了，美國(guó)的年輕人就特流行說(shuō)“Y'all”。
所以，雙語(yǔ)君決定分享《大西洋月刊》一篇關(guān)于y'all的文章，周末來(lái)讀讀英語(yǔ)，漲漲知識(shí)吧。
English has no standard second-person plural word, and it’s time for that to change.
在英語(yǔ)中，第二人稱代詞并沒(méi)有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的復(fù)數(shù)形式，是時(shí)候改變這種情況了。
How y'all doing?
你們好嗎？
A greeting as Southern as a bowl of grits, it rolls off the tongue in a single open-mouth utterance. Sweeter than honey and often saturated with hidden meaning, it can open up a dialogue with a roomful of strangers with ease.
這句問(wèn)候語(yǔ)就和玉米粉一樣，特產(chǎn)于美國(guó)南部，你只需輕啟嘴唇，便可將其脫口而出。它甜于蜜糖，富含寓意，當(dāng)面對(duì)著一屋子的陌生人時(shí)，你可以用這句話輕松地打開(kāi)話匣子。
Part of that ease hinges on the incredible versatility of the phrase’s most important word. “Y’all,” that strange regional and ethnic conjunction, offers a simplicity to speech that can’t be found elsewhere. It is a magnificently elegant linguistic creation.
之所以輕松，是因?yàn)檫@句話中最重要的單詞具有很大的靈活性?！癥’all”這個(gè)有著地域色彩的奇怪連詞，能讓說(shuō)話變得前所未有的簡(jiǎn)單。這是語(yǔ)言上一次華麗又簡(jiǎn)練的發(fā)明。
There are no distinct second-person plural pronouns in modern standard English. “Ye” once served that purpose; a good look at the King James version of the Bible can give a sense of the usage. “Ye are the light of the world,” Jesus told a crowd in Galilee. But nowadays, “ye” and some other fun Middle English pronouns have fallen by the wayside, except at Medieval Times and in fantasy novels. Even “thou,” the etymological informal brother of “you,” fell off the linguistic map around the 17th century.
現(xiàn)代英語(yǔ)中并沒(méi)有單獨(dú)的第二人稱代詞復(fù)數(shù)形式?！癥e”曾經(jīng)履行著這一職能，在詹姆士國(guó)王版本的圣經(jīng)中可以找到它的用法?！澳銈兪鞘澜缰狻！保╕e are the light of the world）耶穌對(duì)加利利人說(shuō)。但是現(xiàn)如今，“Ye”還有其他有趣的中古英語(yǔ)代詞都被邊緣化了，只有在中世紀(jì)或小說(shuō)里能見(jiàn)到。甚至連“thou”這個(gè)“you”的非正式詞源兄弟，也在17世紀(jì)的時(shí)候也從語(yǔ)言學(xué)地圖上消失了。
Which—thanks to the abandonment of the formal/informal system of pronouns influenced by French—leaves us with one word: “you,” that pronoun-of-all-trades. “You” is all we English-speakers have to refer to any person or group or large crowd, regardless of status or size.
然后，很多受法語(yǔ)的影響的正式/非正式的代詞體系也被拋棄了，最后只留下一個(gè)“you”，用來(lái)指代各行各業(yè)的人。所有說(shuō)英語(yǔ)的人都用“you”來(lái)指代任何人、任何集體、任何一群人，無(wú)論身份如何，不管范圍大小。
How did this happen? Anyone who’s used English in any capacity knows that “you” is a sorry excuse for a plural pronoun. Imagine the confusion of walking into a crowded room and yelling, “You need to listen up!” Who would everyone assume you were referring to? How could they tell?
為什么會(huì)這樣呢？任何懂一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)英語(yǔ)的人都知道，用“you”來(lái)作為代詞復(fù)數(shù)是很不合適的。想象一下，當(dāng)你走進(jìn)一間滿是人的房間，然后大喊一聲“你給我聽(tīng)著！”（You need to listen up）大家會(huì)以為你在和誰(shuí)說(shuō)話呢？他們?cè)撛趺磁袛嗄兀?/span>
It’s rare to find a scenario in which a person is clearly addressing a group of people that doesn’t include an implied qualifier (as in, in the context of a speech) or an unnecessarily long explicit qualifier (“you all”) to specify that “you” is doing the duty that it has been assigned as a plural pronoun. This is some terribly inefficient language, and it’s high time for a fix. It’s time for “y’all.”
如果不用暗示性的限定語(yǔ)（如特定語(yǔ)境），或者冗長(zhǎng)的明確限定語(yǔ)（如“you all”）去強(qiáng)調(diào)用的是“you”的復(fù)數(shù)意義，人們通常很難確定它指的是一群人。這是一種非常低效的交流方式，是時(shí)候加以修正了?！癥’all”的時(shí)代來(lái)了。
Other countries might laugh at our difficulty. Spanish speakers in Spain have their vosotros; Spanish speakers elsewhere have ustedes. German has ihr. Swahili uses nyinyi. But modern English requires that “you” be jury-rigged in order to fulfill its true plural purpose.
其他國(guó)家或許會(huì)笑話我們難以區(qū)分“你”和“你們”。西班牙人有自己的第二人稱復(fù)數(shù)“vosotros”，其他講西班牙語(yǔ)的人也有他們的第二人稱復(fù)數(shù)“ustedes”。德國(guó)有“ihr”。斯瓦希里（Swahili）用“nyinyi”來(lái)表示第二人稱復(fù)數(shù)。但是現(xiàn)代英語(yǔ)中，“you”卻是被臨時(shí)拿來(lái)充當(dāng)?shù)诙朔Q復(fù)數(shù)的。
Americans have created their own ingenious solutions to provide the proper plural context. “You guys” seems to be the most dominant, with “you all,” “youse,” “you-uns,” or even “yinz” popping up in different local contexts. The Brits have “you lot.” Trinidadian Creole uses allyuh, which from its construction seems related to “you all.” And then there’s our precious gem, “y’all,” a staple of both Southern English and African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which either spun from or spun off Southern English itself.
美國(guó)人自有巧妙的方法來(lái)解決這個(gè)復(fù)數(shù)的問(wèn)題。他們主要用“You guys”，在不同地區(qū)的方言中還有“you all”、“youse”、“you-uns”，甚至是“yinz”。英國(guó)人用“you lot”。特立尼達(dá)的克里奧爾人（Trinidadian Creole）用“allyuh”，它的結(jié)構(gòu)似乎就來(lái)自“you all”。然后就是我們的這顆璀璨明珠——“y’all”，這是南方英語(yǔ)和黑人英語(yǔ)（AAVE）的結(jié)合體，是從南方英語(yǔ)中剝離出來(lái)的。
“You guys” isn’t sufficient as a national solution. Firstly, we live in an era of increased scrutiny and consideration over the gender of pronouns that we use, especially as feminism and trans activism expand and shape languages. “They” is entering the picture as a formal gender-neutral singular and plural pronoun. And although “guys” has lost some of its masculine connotation in the English language by proximity to “you,” it’s still a word that immediately connotes a group of men. As workplace and social situations seek to become increasingly inclusive of women and people who don’t conform to gender binaries, “you guys” feels more and more archaic.
“You guys”還不足以成為全國(guó)通用的解決辦法。首先，在當(dāng)今時(shí)代，人們?cè)桨l(fā)嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)對(duì)待所用代詞的性，尤其是眼下女權(quán)運(yùn)動(dòng)和跨性別運(yùn)動(dòng)興起，不斷壯大，不斷改變著語(yǔ)言。舉例而言，“they”就逐漸被視為正式的中性單數(shù)和復(fù)數(shù)代詞。雖然在英語(yǔ)中，“guys”和“you”連用后，已經(jīng)失去了部分陽(yáng)性含義，但是一看到這個(gè)單詞我們依舊會(huì)立即想到一群男性。隨著工作環(huán)境和社會(huì)環(huán)境變得更加接納女性和第三性，“you guys”似乎越來(lái)越過(guò)時(shí)了。
Plus, it’s just a damn clunky way to speak. There’s no flow to it, and the slang nature of “guys” makes it ill-suited for formal speeches or addresses. “I say to you guys today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream,” takes some gravitas away from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., no? Even in the realm of slang, “you guys” isn’t really all that cool, conjuring visions of the Fonz in his leather jacket. Or Eric Cartman. The only person to successfully get away with “you guys” and sound cool was Sloth, and very few people will ever be as awesome as Sloth.
再者，“you guys”念起來(lái)十分笨拙。這個(gè)詞并不連貫，而且“guys”屬于俚語(yǔ)，并不適用于正式場(chǎng)合的發(fā)言中?！盎镉?jì)們，我是說(shuō)，朋友們，今天我對(duì)你們說(shuō)，在此時(shí)此刻，我們雖然遭受種種困難和挫折，我仍然有一個(gè)夢(mèng)想。”如果馬丁?路德?金（Martin Luther King Jr.）這樣發(fā)表演說(shuō)，難免會(huì)有失莊嚴(yán)，不是嗎？就算是在俚語(yǔ)里面，“you guys”也并不總是那么酷的，想想《歡樂(lè)時(shí)光》（Happy Days）里穿皮夾克的方奇（the Fonz）或者《南方公園》（South Park）里的埃里克?卡特曼（Eric Cartman）就知道了。只有一個(gè)人可以成功駕馭“you guys”這個(gè)詞，并且讓它聽(tīng)起來(lái)很酷，那就是《七寶奇謀》（The Goonies）里面的斯洛夫（Sloth），但是很少有人能像他這么厲害。
Which is why we need “y’all.” It doesn’t suffer from having the gender implications or general lameness of “you guys.” It sounds elegant, warm, and inviting. It offers both economy and an end to second-person ambiguity. Teach it in schools across the country. Mouth it to babies. Put it on end-of-grade tests. With respect to “youse,” “yinz,” and “you-uns,” its lesser-known cousins, “y’all” is the most widely practiced of the options and could be the easiest to implement.
這就是為什么我們需要“y’all”。這個(gè)詞既無(wú)性別含義，也不像“you guys”那樣有各種缺陷?！癥’all”聽(tīng)起來(lái)優(yōu)雅、友好而迷人。它不僅簡(jiǎn)潔利落，而且消除了第二人稱單復(fù)數(shù)的歧義。所以，不妨在全國(guó)各地的學(xué)校教這個(gè)詞，對(duì)嬰兒說(shuō)這個(gè)詞，在期末試卷里考這個(gè)詞。與鮮為人知的“youse”、“yinz”和“you-uns”相比，“y’all”是最常用的，也是最容易被普及的。
The hypothesized origins of “y’all” speak to the necessity of adding a second-person plural. While it could just be a contraction of “you all,” some evidence shows that it could also originate from the Scots-Irish ye aw, a Creolization from African slaves, or a combination of the two. Given that the Appalachian Scots-Irish are also behind “youse,” “yinz,” and “you-uns” and given common African Creolizations such as allyuh, it may just be that these two groups were the most fed up with the erosion of the second-person plural.
關(guān)于“y’all’”起源的假說(shuō)正好印證了增加第二人稱復(fù)數(shù)的必要性。它有可能是“you all”的縮寫，但有些證據(jù)表明它也可能起源于蘇格蘭-愛(ài)爾蘭語(yǔ)的“ye aw”，即非洲奴隸的克里奧爾語(yǔ)，或者說(shuō)是兩者的結(jié)合體。鑒于阿巴拉契亞山的蘇格蘭-愛(ài)爾蘭人也使用“youse”、“yinz”和“you-uns”，非洲奴隸的克里奧爾語(yǔ)中常用“allyh”，所以第二人稱復(fù)數(shù)逐漸消失，這兩個(gè)群體可能對(duì)此最深惡痛絕。
But those origins may also have something to do with the stigmatization of “y’all.” Southern accents and Southern words are generally perceived by Yankee ears as making their speakers less intelligent, and that ain’t right. The regional bias also bleeds into a quasi-racial bias against AAVE, even during a time when we have a president who employs a cache of its words, including “y’all,” fairly liberally. This is the struggle I’ve long silently endured as a black Carolinian: code-switching my “y’all” to “you all” in speech and emails, mostly because “you guys” was a step too far in the direction of awful. Have I mentioned that “you guys” is really bad?
然而這些起源也可能和“y’all”的污名化有關(guān)。美國(guó)北方人通常會(huì)認(rèn)為，南方口音和詞匯會(huì)使說(shuō)話者顯得傻里傻氣的，但這是不對(duì)的。反對(duì)黑人英語(yǔ)這一種族歧視的表現(xiàn)中，也滲透了地域歧視，盡管如今我們的總統(tǒng)也大量使用黑人英語(yǔ)中的詞匯，其中就包括“y’all”。作為一個(gè)卡羅萊納州的黑人，我一直在默默地忍受著煎熬：我在演講和寫郵件的時(shí)候，會(huì)把“y’all”轉(zhuǎn)換成“you all”，主要是因?yàn)椤皔ou guys”太討人厭了。我有沒(méi)有和你們說(shuō)過(guò)“you guys”真的很糟糕？
So let’s end that stigmatization and give “y’all” its rightful place in language proper. “Y’all hiring?” “Y’all ok?” The possibilities are endless, and a simple substitution could actually solve a real problem in modern English that will only grow as we continue to examine how gender works in language. It could provide a better and gender-neutral word. It could relieve “you” of the impossible task of ostensibly functioning in so many roles, and maybe even along the way ease some of the regional and racial stigmatization of language and slang. It’s worth a shot, y’all.
所以，讓我們放下對(duì)“y’all”的偏見(jiàn)，并且賦予其在語(yǔ)言上的正確地位。“Y’all hiring?”（你們招人嗎）“Y’all ok?”（你們還好嗎？）世界是有無(wú)限可能的，一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的替換可以解決現(xiàn)代英語(yǔ)中的問(wèn)題，否則隨著我們深入探索性別在語(yǔ)言中的作用，這個(gè)問(wèn)題只會(huì)越來(lái)越嚴(yán)重。換掉原來(lái)的詞，可以給我們帶來(lái)一個(gè)更好的中性詞，可以把“you”從多角色扮演的不可能任務(wù)中解放出來(lái)，這樣發(fā)展下去甚至可以緩和對(duì)語(yǔ)言和俚語(yǔ)的地域和種族歧視。“Y’all”值得一試。
