Alls, a Relative Pronoun?

One of the foremost advantages of corpus work is that it allows us to uncover facts about language that would not have been noticed with more traditional methods. What would earlier have been dismissed as an isolated error, an unfortunate turn of phrase or a misunderstanding may well, when the computer presents all the instances of the phenomenon in the corpus, turn out to be a significant innovation in the language. A case in point may be alls. In the CobuildDirect Corpus, a 57-million-word corpus of modern British, American and Australian English, there are a number of occurrences of the word alls. Here are a few specimens:

far from a misprint or an accidental inadvertency.In the "ukspok" section of Cobuild ("UK transcribed informal speech"), where it occurs 28 times, it represents 3 occurrences per one million words, which makes it about as frequent as gruesome or mule or sombre in the whole Corpus.So alls is primarily, if not exclusively, a spoken feature.Although it thus seems to be unknown in British English, there are indications that it exists, and has existed for some time in American English.It is mentioned (as all's) and translated as 'All that' in DARE, and a number of contributors to the Internet testify to its existence in various parts of the US.It is said to be characteristic of Boston slang, it is often heard in Maryland and Michigan, it is part of "Delaware Valleyisms," and it used to be common in Ohio.One correspondent suspects that it is "widespread in America."The Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary includes it as "alls (other): Used at the beginning of a sentence to describe a limit: 'Alls I need to do is ...'" There are also a couple of American examples in the Corpus, from National Public Radio broadcasts: (4) I can't give you a time frame on that, Rick.Alls I can say is that the US and coalition forces are attacking with an aggressive spirit, and we're meeting the enemy Corpus: npr/07.Text: S2000910226.
(5) if you care to avoid the law alls you have to do is strap a gun to your waist and buy a cabin on a mountaintop somewhere in Idaho.Corpus: npr/07.Text: S2000920824.
It seems we can conclude that the form arose in the US and, if we are to trust the Corpus evidence, is beginning to have an impact on British English.
What is the origin of this form?Various suggestions put forward on the Internet are generally unlikely: that it is a plural of all ("pack up your alls"), that it is all + an S from a following is ("all I know iS"), or even that it is a contraction of German [!] alles.It is clear that its origin must lie elsewhere.
Although alls seems to be interchangeable with all, there are restrictions on it; there are no cases of, say, *That will be alls, or *Alls in alls.Unlike pronouns like anyone, everybody, etc., alls is never used outside of the relative context.Cf. anyone you ask anyone would know that everything they saw everything looked all right alls you talk about *alls was in order Alls only functions as a relativiser and means 'all that.'This gives a clue to its etymology.In all probability it is a contracted form of all as, where as does duty as a relative pronoun, which is also DARE's suggestion for the American form.
As has a long tradition as a relative pronoun.Mustanoja (1960: 202) gives examples of it, such as the following, from the 14 th century: (6) arsmetrike is a lore ϸat of figours al is And of drauʒtes as me draweϸ in poudre, EE Poems xvii 225 ('Arithmetic is an art that is wholly made up of figures And of drawings that one draws in powder') In later days, as occurs as a relative pronoun in different English dialects, according to the EDD s.v.AS, rel.pron.("You mean him as Miss T. is going to marry," "Every lad and every wench as went").The Survey of English Dialects (under Harold Orton) found relative as in large parts of England, as illustrated in The Linguistic Atlas of England (1978), where it covers a substantial part of the Midlands (in Map S5).The OED (s.v. as B✝24a) states "Obs. in standard English, but common dial. in England and the United States."More recent studies, such as those reported on in Kortmann and Schneider (2004), show that the relative particle as is found in six varieties of English: North of England, Southeast of England, Southwest of England, Appalachian English, New Zealand English and Cameroon English (Kortmann andSzmrecsanyi 2004: 1151).In Tanja Herrmann's material (2005: 25), restricted to UK dialects, the relative particle as occurs 19 times, representing 0.8% of all the relative markers.It is most frequent (11 occurrences) in Nottinghamshire.EDD also shows (s.v.ALL 5) that relative as can take all as its antecedent in various dialects ("If yō' don't like it, yō' can lump it, and that's all as is").
Here are a few examples from Cobuild of all as (relative) from present-day English: (7) We haven't got anything.All as I used to live for was my house to have my house nice and clean you know to have nice things in it.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000001271.
(8) They come back from the football or wherever we've been on a Sunday afternoon bath the kids get the telly on the fire on and get them a bit of tea and try and sit and watch the telly and all as you hear is effing and blinding and screaming and shouting and threatening.He hates baths.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000001271.
If the suggested etymology of the form alls is correct, it thus comprises the antecedent + a relative pronoun rolled into one and is itself a nominal relative pronoun.Relative what can be seen in the same light, viz.as consisting of an antecedent ('that') and a pronoun ('which'), as in e.g.What you see is what you get."In fact, that which...is rare and formal, and is generally replaced by what" (Quirk et al. 1985: 373).Alls is thus a functional parallel of relative what, and like relative what it can be seen, syntactically, to belong to both the matrix and the relative clause.
Interestingly, Cobuild also records a few occurrences of alls what (probably coming from the same speaker): So alls what in ( 9) and ( 10) is probably a blend of all (a)s and all what.
Occasionally there are signs of hesitation between alls and all, as in (15) They sit there <ZF1> alls they do <ZF0> all they do is they tell you the same things over and over again.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000000507.This hesitation could be taken to show that alls, although present as a variant in the idiolect, is not (yet) firmly established.On the other hand, the existence of the collocation alls what may suggest that alls is apprehended as monomorphemic and no longer associated with all as (cf. the impossibility of *all as what) and indeed beginning to establish itself as an independent unit.If that trend continues we may see alls taking its place in the future alongside what, whatever, whichever and whoever and be recognised as a nominal relative pronoun in British as well as American English.It is only thanks to corpora that such a possibility could be imagined.

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<M02> And she was in the street like she knew that I was <tc text=pause> <M0X> Sh <M02> leaving.And that's alls what broke my heart really you know what I mean leaving the babby.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000000507.(10) <M02>And erm alls what hurt me most of all was the baby had a little run with me you know what I mean.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000000507.We can assume that alls what is influenced by all what.What is "[u]sed as a rel.pron., referring both to persons and things; in gen.colloq.use." (EDD s.v.WHAT II 4: "I've got a poor son what's a cripple," "Something what somebody imagines," "I got a letter what she wrote on her dying bed," etc.).Under what C 7 the OED says "now dial.or vulgar."Herrmann shows (2005: 25) that the relative particle what (170 occurrences) is much more frequent than the relative particle as.Most of the occurrences in her material come from the southern parts of the country (Eastern Somerset, Suffolk, Eastern Cambridgeshire).The collocation all what is reasonably frequent in modern English, and its place is often but not always the spoken colloquial language.Here are a few examples from the Corpus: (11) <F04> They just like said about all what can happen and but I don't think anybody <F0X> How it <ZGY> <F04> takes it really seriously Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000001237.(12) and as a result of monetary expansion you increase demand and of course all what happens is that the price level rises.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S0000000078.(13) <M01> I remember my father telling me and <ZG1> as you say about the cycling <ZG0> <ZF1> that's <ZF0> that's all <M02> Yeah.<M01> all what my father used to do.Corpus: ukspok/04.Text: S9000000263.(14) I have never been so nervous as I was playing the last seven holes on Sunday, confessed Couples.But I recalled all what Ray had told me and managed to calm myself Corpus: today/11.Text: N6000920414.