You are probably an excellent example of my point, @Beth Gallagher , if you pronounce both words the same way. For me, pin rhymes with thin, and pen rhymes with then; so very different . Robin works with the Chinook helicopters, and she had sent me a video of one of the ceremonies in the Netherlands when thy got the new Chinooks. The first speaker was trying to pronounce it in one syllable, something like “schnook”, and another speaker pronounced it like chin-OOK, with the emphasis on the last syllable. She said that they also say “five-teen” instead of fifteen , as we would say here in the US.
My ex used to make fun of me for saying "Take and..." before everything. "Take and peel the potatoes, then take and add the carrots, then take and stir..." I used to think it slipped into my vernacular from my early upbringing in Indiana. Then I heard the Beach Boys use it "Sloop John B." "And then he took and ate up all of my corn." The song has roots going back to the early 1900s, picking up variations along the way. So there's no usable clue there. Goodness knows where I acquired the habit, but I took and dropped it somewhere along the way.
I've been a southerner all my life and have never heard "all y'all." Living in Baton Rouge I did hear "goin' to mominem's" quite often, though.
For many years I was a teacher of English as a Second Language to adult immigrants. A course I taught every semester was in pronunciation. As my classes were in New Jersey, I taught them to speak as the locals speak. If I had been somewhere else, say Louisiana, I would have taught that. Regional accents are different, not right or wrong.
In my experience, y'all is "you all," so is always plural. When addressing an individual, it's just "you."
It wasn't always like this. Chaucer's pronouns had 'thou - thy - thee' singular second and 'ye - youre - you' plural second person. I find it rather amusing that real English has invented a new pronoun.
"y'all" in Texas is the same as "you guys" ( you guyyzzz -- you must almost sing it with a mouth twist) in Colorado and means two or more humans or maybe even a human and their dog. All y'all is more of a California thing that was once used to be a mockery of hillbilly southern talk. "All y'all coming with?" was used by Calis to impress ones from the backward backwoods south with their command of language that they received from their enlightenment while tanning on the beach. I use to say, "Is all y'all coming with us ones," just to mock them back. My favorite was from distant cousins from Alabama. "Hay, Faaaa, you in, ga in, ta tha, pictchar sho" What is the picture show? Are we going down to 60 minute photo to see photos of your prom?" Just as bad was the bellbottom-clad over-tanned cousin from Cali that would say, "Hey Chick, you cruising shotgun in my new groovy wheels on down to the flix?" "Are we going, to watch a bugger flicking contest?" I wondered. Whatever happened to just say movies or movie theatre or the name of the show? "You want to put that dagnabbed violin away and get down off that metal roof? Fiddler on the Roof is playing at the movie theatre with a free second feature, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." I must say, my stay, one school year in Texas as a resident, so I could get my driver's license at 14, did affect my pronunciation. On return to Colorado and on one very cold evening waiting to get in a new pizza joint, I said, "It's frazin out here y'all." I caught hell for that until I moved away. I think some of my cousins tried to have my Colorado birth certificate revoked.