This is a humor column ….unless you don’t laugh. Then it’s just a column.

I’ve written many columns about the word “y’all” and its origins. As a y’all-aholic, I say and write it frequently, even though some people claim that using it makes me sound un-educated (as if…that’s all I’m saying, as if).

I’ve also written that the South owns “y’all” like we own sweet tea and fried green tomatoes, which is true because we popularized it, but now a professor from our very own University of Alabama told NPR that people under 40 in all parts of the country have taken a liking to “y’all.” Seems people are using it willy-nilly without properly filing their Southern cards first.

I, for one, say the more the merrier. I am happy to let anyone borrow it and here’s why: Other alternatives for second-person plural pronouns are stupid. The worst culprit is one used on that HGTV show “Unsellable Houses,” based in Washington state. Hosts and twin sisters Leslie and Lindsay are fun and adorable and I love their show but, bless their sweet knees, they use a phrase that really grates my cheese: “your guyses.” I’m not even sure how to write that: “Your guyses? “Your guys’?” However you write it, it is the most loathsome phrase to ever fall out of someone’s brain. It needs to be stopped. So, please, feel free to use “y’all.”

So how did we Americans so carelessly misplace our only second-person plural pronoun? There’s no definitive explanation. Old-English words like “thou” and “ye” eventually fell out of favor in colonial America. Someone replaced “ye” with “you” but whoever was supposed to make up a new word for “thou” must have been out with diphtheria that day.

Centuries later, we have finally come to a consensus, says Paul E. Reed, a linguist at the University of Alabama who studies Southern American English and Appalachian English. “‘Y’all’ has won,” he told NPR.

Well, sure. There was never any real competition.

If y’all’re wondering how to use y’all in compound contractions, I can help. “Y’all’re” (you all are) is certainly acceptable, as is “y’all’d’ve” (you all would have) but many people have asked me whether it is proper to use the phrase “all y’all.” As a professional and mildly respected humor columnist, here’s my opinion: While it seems redundant and makes the English major in me cringe, the phrase “all y’all” does have its uses. Technically, “all y’all” is overkill because y’all already includes “all.” It’s not like you’ve ever heard anyone say, “Do all you all need seconds on banana pudding?”

But…because many people have begun using “y’all” in the singular – i.e.., asking your mother “Where have y’all been?” – I vote we give folks a little leeway on “all y’all.” It definitely gets the point across, as in “All y’all kids get off my lawn before I call your mama’n’em.”

Now for my last lesson: Please – for the love of MeeMaw’s cornbread – please, please, please spell it correctly. Let’s go back to second-grade contraction lessons: The apostrophe takes the place of the omitted letter or letters. Therefore, you should never, ever, ever-times-a-gabillion write “ya’ll.” Treat it with the respect it deserves, y’all.