How's you guys's day going?

Over the past few years I have noticed "guys" cropping up more in everyday conversation among Brits. To old-fashioned British ears it sounds like another instance of insidious Americanisms sidling into our noble local parlance.

In restaurants:
"Can I get some drinks for you guys?"
"Okay guys, are you ready to order?"

Among friends:
"Come on guys, let's get going!"
"What are you guys doing later?"

Fortunately, my old-fashioned British ears share brain space with my linguist's ears. Turns of phrase such as "guys" and "yous" and "you all" are solutions, probably unconscious, to the problem of English having no distinct second person plural pronoun that other European languages have: vous, voi, vosotros, Sie, jullie, εσεις etc.

English just has "you".

So "guys" or "you guys" has effectively become a second person plural pronoun. Hence the eminently logical but rather clunky "you guys's", meaning "your", which I heard spoken by Shawn WIllsey (a geologist in Idaho) who said: "I was listening to you guys's podcast". In case you're wondering, everything Willsey said was Standard American English. No street talk, no trendy turns of phrase. Nothing unusual except the odd bit of geology terminology.

"You guys's" may not be elegant, but this pragmatic plural is functional and very English. And in the fullness of time - a decade or more - it may even become standard.