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Kirbyville Public Library, 210 S Elizabeth Avenue, Kirbyville, TX (2026)

07/28/2026

Y’all, All Y’all, and the Quest for a Second-Person Plural Pronoun
No matter how you spell it or how many people you’re addressing, “y’all” is a remarkably versatile alternative to “you guys” or “you.”

In the United States, “you guys” is one of the most commonly used second-person pronoun references, but “y’all” is all the rage. While “y’all” is still heard primarily in the Southern United States and nationwide in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), its usage has been on a dramatic rise since the late 20th century.

The increasing popularity of “y’all” can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the mainstream use of AAVE in media, as well as the fact that “y’all” is a preferable gender-neutral alternative to “you guys.” “Y’all” also rolls off the tongue in a softer, warmer way than “you guys” or even “you all.” For instance, “You guys come back tomorrow” sounds clunky and even vaguely threatening, while “Y’all come back tomorrow” may be perceived as both friendlier and more inviting.

The correct spelling places an apostrophe between the “y” and the “a,” as it’s a contraction of “you” and “all.” The pronoun got a nod from Dictionary.com in the summer of 2021 when it gave “y’all” its own entry, separate from “you-all.” The entry notes the word “now communicates an informal tone more than a regional identity, and one that has become popular among younger demographics for its inclusivity.”

As far as American Southernisms go, the second-person pronoun “y’all” is probably among the most familiar. The use of “y’all” in a movie or TV show is a quick signifier of a character’s place of origin. How and when this contraction for “you all” came to the Southern U.S. is a little murky, however. Once believed to be a fairly recent neologism native to Southern American English, “y’all” has actually been around quite a bit longer than lexicographers previously realized. The second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary dated the term to 1909, but in fact it was first used in the 1631 poem “The Faire Aethiopian” by English poet William Lisle:
The captiue men of strength I gaue to you,
The weaker sold; and this y’all know is true,
The free-borne women ransom’d, or set free
For pittie sake, the seruile sort had yee.

Thanks to digitized databases, we now know “y’all” existed outside of the United States prior to its first appearance there in the early 19th century. Its usage in the Southern United States has been linked to Scots-Irish immigrants and their use of the second-person plural pronoun “ye aw.” Other linguists believe “y’all” is rooted in early African American vernaculars or African English Creole. It’s likely a combination, as both Scots-Irish immigrants and enslaved African Americans were living and interacting in the same regions at the same time. In any case, there’s no doubt that “y’all” has since become the most identifiable feature of the Southern American English dialect.

There was a time when early Standard English had both a singular and plural set of second-person pronouns. “Thou” and “thee” were singular, while “ye” and, maybe confusingly, “you” were plural. Over time, however, “ye” and “you” began serving as formal singular pronouns when speaking to someone of high prestige or importance, such as the clergy or aristocracy. As people shifted between “ye” and “you” and “thou” and “thee” based on whom they were speaking to, “you” and “ye” eventually merged into just “you,” while “thou” and “thee” vanished from conversation entirely.
“You” can still be used as a singular or plural pronoun, but other terms have slipped into various regional dialects, including “you guys,” “you lot,” “you ones,” “you’uns,” “yinz,” “yous,” “youse,” “you all,” and “y’all.” In England, “you lot” is the American version of “you guys.” The Scottish say “you ones,” which found its way into Appalachia as “you’uns.” Travel north of Appalachia into Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, and you’re likely to hear a shorter version of “you’uns” in “yinz.” In New York City, you might hear “yous” (also spelled “youse”) or “youse guys.”

Interestingly, none of these second-person pronouns — including “y’all” — is considered Standard English. Why? Linguists point to the stigmatization of the people who tend to use these pronouns: people from the South, people of color, and people from poor rural and poor urban areas.

There’s some debate about whether “y’all” can be used as a singular second-person pronoun (to refer to a single person, rather than a group), but linguists have already documented “y’all” being used that way. So, if “y’all” can refer to a single person OR a group of people, is there a need to pluralize it further? Some people say yes — and “all y’all” is the answer. So, while “y’all” may refer to an indeterminate number of people, “all y’all” refers to everyone who is being addressed.

07/24/2026

The Final Letter Added to the Alphabet

Singing your A,B,C’s is one of the first lessons learned in pre-school, but this 26-letter song couldn’t have been solidified until the final letter was added in the 17th century — and it wasn’t “Z.”

Some late-stage additions can really tie things together in an unexpected yet positive way. For example, the zany Mork character appeared in a later-season episode of Happy Days, and was so popular that he got his own Mork & Mindy spin-off. It’s hard to imagine Robin Williams’ comedy legacy without Mork’s distinctive “Na-nu na-nu” greeting. As another late-stage heavy hitter, we have the letter “J,” which was the final letter added to the Latin alphabet (the standard 26-letter alphabet used by most modern Western languages). It was missing a special something until the final letter filled the linguistic void in the early 17th century.

The modern Latin alphabet evolved from a combination of Anglo-Saxon runes and the ancient Latin script. In the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons arrived in the British Isles and brought with them an alphabet that formed the basis for the Old English language. Later, in the seventh century, the Latin script, which is more reminiscent of the alphabet we use today, was introduced throughout the region.

Latin and Old English were used concurrently for several centuries until the latter evolved into Middle English circa the early 11th century. Around this time, a hybrid alphabet emerged, consisting of 23 of the standard letters we still use today, plus three runic symbols to represent the sounds “th,” “wy,” and “eth.” The runic symbols eventually fell out of use, and the letters “U” and “W” were added to the Latin alphabet in the Middle Ages. Finally, in the 1600s, the 26th and final letter was added: “J.”

In ancient Roman numerals, swash symbols were used to denote the end of numeral sequences — the number 13, for example, sometimes appeared in text as “XIIJ” instead of “XIII.” But this “J” shape was solely for visual purposes, as there was no distinct “J” sound.

During the Middle Ages, the English language slowly incorporated sounds that were more similar to the modern “J” sound. People who wrote in classical Latin often used the letter “I” as both a vowel and a consonant, the latter of which was pronounced with a “Y” sound. Around the 14th century, the symbol of a “J” began appearing in text to specifically denote the consonant “I” that sounded like a “Y.” And throughout the late 15th and early 16th centuries, many scholars proposed the idea of formally adding “J” to the alphabet for this explicit purpose.

“J” was still rarely used by William Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616). In fact, first-edition copies of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from 1597 were titled Romeo and Iuliet. What’s more, the 1611 edition of the King James Bible featured “Iesus” (Jesus) and “Ioseph” (Joseph). At the time, it wasn’t called “the King James Version” yet, just “the Holy Bible,” so the cover or title page didn’t include a “J.”
In 1629, the Cambridge edition of the King James Bible became the first modern English text to print “J” as its own unique letter. This ushered in a new era of English printers using the letter “J,” which only became more popular with writers in the following decades. By the start of the 18th century, “J” had become a full-fledged member of the standard Latin alphabet.

For a brief period of time, “J” wasn’t actually the last addition to the Latin alphabet. The “&” symbol, now known as an “ampersand,” was a curious and temporary case, as it was briefly taught as the 27th letter. The symbol dates back to the first century CE and is used in place of the word “and.” It was taught as a letter of the alphabet beginning around 1835, primarily in England, where “&” appeared in alphabet books and was taught in schools. However, the symbol’s time as a member of the Latin alphabet was brief, and it was largely removed from books as well as the English school curriculum before the end of the 19th century. Since then, the standard Latin alphabet has remained at 26 letters.

07/17/2026

As English settlers laid down roots in the Americas, their language started to deviate from British English. During this linguistic evolution, new slang emerged among those living in the American colonies. While many popular examples from that era have since fallen by the wayside, the 250th birthday of the United States is a good opportunity to examine the colloquialisms that people back then used in their everyday lives. Many examples can be found in Colonial American English, a lexicon compiled by Richard M. Lederer in 1985. Here are some that stood out.

Macaroni
The colonial usage of this word had nothing to do with cheese or pasta. A clue can be found in the song “Yankee Doodle,” in which the titular character “stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni.” In this case, the slang “macaroni” means “fop,” or “a man who is devoted to or vain about his appearance.” The song has been around since the 1750s, likely written by an English physician to mock the colonial soldiers after the French and Indian War. The original context for “macaroni” was not complimentary. He was calling them “doodle” (a country hick) and “dandy” (a conceited jerk), and “macaroni” fit right along with those insults.
British soldiers were known to play “Yankee Doodle” as they traveled the countryside, apparently to rile up the colonists. But legend has it that after the American victory at Lexington and Concord, the colonial soldiers turned the tables and played “Yankee Doodle” to taunt the Brits about their defeat at the hands of the doodles and dandies. After that, the song became a rallying cry for the American Continental Army.

Plaguey
The adjective “plaguey” sounds a bit ominous, but it has nothing to do with illness. This slang was used in the colonies as a synonym for “exceedingly.” Let’s say you were eating an especially delicious meal — you may have said, “This dinner is plaguey tasty.”

Adam’s Ale
If you were to walk into a pub and order Adam’s ale, you wouldn’t be handed a tall glass of beer. Instead, you would receive a cup of water — “Adam’s ale” was used to mean “water” starting in 1643. The slang references Adam from the biblical Garden of Eden, where the only drink available (presumably) was water.

Goose
Back in colonial times, you would have been just as likely to see a goose in a tailor’s shop as in the sky. “Goose” was slang for a heavy iron used by tailors to smooth out thick fabrics. The name comes from the handle shaped like a goose’s neck.

Kedge
The term “kedge,” meaning “to be in good health and spirits,” was a regionalism primarily found in New England colonial towns. If a person asked how you were doing, you might have replied, “I am kedge.” The etymology of this word is uncertain, but it’s also used in an entirely different context related to moving a ship along a line attached to an anchor.

Wooden Horse
Riding the wooden horse was an uncomfortable punishment for colonial soldiers. If a soldier were to act out of line, their captain may have told them to hop on a rail known as the wooden horse. Misbehaving soldiers would have been forced to straddle the wooden horse until their punishment ended.

Pig
If you call someone a pig today, you’re probably commenting on their lewd behavior. But American colonists used “pig” as a verb meaning “to squeeze together,” based on how pigs were packed into their pens. A colonial soldier forced to cram into tight sleeping quarters with other soldiers was pigging.

Slop Seller
In modern contexts, “slop” is either a pile of mushy food or low-quality AI-generated content. But back in the 18th century, the term “slop” referred to the baggy trousers worn by sailors. If you were a “slop seller,” you were known for selling and outfitting sailors with the lower halves of their uniforms.

Feeze
The slang “feeze” referred to “a state of fretful excitement or alarm.” It’s derived from the Middle English “fesen,” meaning “to drive away.” “Feeze” could be used as a noun, as in “to put someone in a feeze.” It was also used as a verb, such as in a 1689 text by Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather: “A devil would … make her laugh to see how he feaz’d ’em about.”

Chapel Ghost
“Chapel” (sometimes spelled “chappel”) was a nickname for a printing house long before colonial America existed, but the term “chapel ghost” was popularized in the Americas as slang for “the gremlin who mixes things up in a printing house.” The gremlin is a fanciful figure, used as a scapegoat for all the things that may have gone wrong in a printing house. Benjamin Franklin wrote about how “chappel ghosts” haunted him and caused mischief when he worked as a printmaster’s apprentice.

07/10/2026

We can't wait to see everyone this Friday at Kirbyville Public Library. Hope to see you all there, and while you're at it, bring a friend. After all everyone, 17 and under paints for free. Don't forget we're painting with acrylics, so dress for a mess.

07/08/2026

OK — these two letters take up a lot of space in our everyday conversations and serve a variety of uses. “How are you?” “OK” (for small talk and pleasantries). “Can you pick up the kids after work?” “OK” (for quick agreement). “How was the movie?” “OK” (implying ambivalence or even distaste). What started off as an initialism — an abbreviation in which the letters are pronounced individually — has evolved into one of the most widely used words in American English, and the subject of entire books (Allan Metcalf’s The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word).

In a similar fashion to how 21st-century text speak plays with punny spellings (LOLZ), mid-1800s newspaper editors would often write with misspellings and then create acronyms from those “mistakes.” The Boston Morning Post, for example, used “OW” to stand in for “oll wright” (meaning “all right”). Not all of these alternate spellings took hold, but an 1839 satirical article about grammar included an intentional misspelling of “oll korrect,” and the course of American English was changed.

The Presidential Roots of “OK”
Around the same time, President Martin Van Buren was on his 1840 reelection tour with the campaign nickname of “Old Kinderhook,” which referred to his New York hometown. Campaign organizers picked up on the Boston newspaper’s use of “OK,” and turned it into a slogan — “OK is OK.” Around the country, “OK clubs” sprung up to promote the President’s reelection. Unfortunately, the slogan was easily co-opted by the opposition, with nicknames such as “Orful Konspiracy” and “Orful Katastrophe.” After incumbent Van Buren lost the election, the connection to his campaign faded away, but the usage for “oll korrect” continued to expand.

The Kraze for K
Since the mid-1800s, “OK” has been through many edits as writers have dropped and added periods, elongated it to “okay,” and explored other spelling variations. President Woodrow Wilson used the spelling “okeh” to sign off on documents — this version comes from the spelling of a Choctaw word that sounds similar to “OK” and means “it is so.”

The popularity of the smacky and final “k” sound represents a greater trend in advertising to prioritize “k” over “c” whenever possible, even at the expense of changing actual spellings. It was called “the kraze for K,” outlined in 1925 by Louise Pound, who pointed to President Andrew Jackson’s advisers referring to the cabinet as the “Kitchen Kabinet.”

While it seems to be primarily American English in origin, the term has variations in many languages, most with a sense of confirmation. The Scots say och aye for “yes, indeed,” the Greeks have ola kala for “everything is well,” and the Finnish use oikea for “correct, exact.”

Confirming Receipt as Quickly as Possible
In 1844, the telegraph was invented, and the two-letter “OK” strengthened as a fast and easy way to communicate via the new technology. The letters became a standard response to confirm a transmission was received. Its punchiness gave folks the ability to quickly convey that everything was “all right” or “good to go,” but in fewer characters.

Not everyone loved the fun, catchy word, though. Many 19th-century writers, including Mark Twain and Bret Harte, steered away from its use, and Little Women author Louisa May Alcott used it once in the original 1868 draft of the book, but switched from “I’m OK with that” to “I’m cozy with that” in the next version.

Losing a Letter, and Gaining Some Attitude
“OK,” in recent use, isn’t always innocent and agreeable. In texting, messaging, and on social media, it’s often shortened to “k” and can be interpreted in a variety of ways, thereby increasing its allure. A brisk and solo “k” can indicate some irritation, or an abrupt end to a conversation where there’s perhaps more to be said later. It also easily conveys sarcasm, in place of “sure” or “yeah, right,” such as when a teenager says they cleaned their room and the parent says “k” in a highly doubtful tone. In fact, ending a text conversation with just a “k” and not a “sounds good” and a friendly emoji can be disconcerting for the recipient. In recent years, tone-aware texters have doubled up with “kk” to show that they are, in fact, saying “OK” without any hint of sarcasm. Think of it as “OK’s” friendlier little cousin.

06/17/2026

Thank you to The Scholastic Book Fair for being so good to us and kicking off our Summer Reading Program with a bang!🎉📚

06/12/2026

We would like to thank the Beaumont Children's Museum and Ms. Lupe for coming out this morning and bringing the fun with them. We made dinosaur prints, dug up fossils, colored pages, made sensory bottles, excavated some dinosaurs, erupted volcanos, played with giant dino bones, and so much more. We hope to see you all next week when the Dino Academy arrives.

Kirbyville Public Library

07/28/2026

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