y'all

Rick might appreciate this (noting his young'ns = Du. jongens proposal):

y'all = Du. jullie /yöli/

Dutch has promoted the polite 'vous' form nom. je, obl. jou, (corresponding to ME nom. ye, obl. you) to be the standard 2sg pronoun.
English seems to have taken the step further (under French influence?) to use the obl. form also in the nom. (cf. French vous; Afrikaans has 1pl 'ons' for Dutch 'wij'/'ons', also French influence?). Thus Dutch is/was in the same predicament as English of having no separate 2pl, which was remediated by constructing 'je lie' "you people" = 'jullie', which form now alternates with je/jou for 2pl. Tempting to think that's where the Americans got 'y'all'.


Torsten