"yinz" or "yunz"
Howard L. Goode
During my stay in Pittsburgh, PA, I've noticed that the natives use a word
sounding like "yinz" or "yunz" as a 3rd-person plural. Does anyone here
know the "correct" spelling of this word, and where else it might be used?
Thanks in advance.
john
In article <01bc97f6$071077c0$b8c62299@default>, "Howard L. Goode"
<someone@somewhere> wrote:
> Thanks in advance.
It comes from a contraction of "you ones" so I'd say "you'ns" is the correct
spelling. From what I have heard, it is pretty much confined to
southwestern PA.
I remember hearing a radio show with linguists who were trying to determine
callers
home region by their accents and choice of words. For most people they
would take
a minute or so to narrow down the region to a particular region of the US.
When someone called in and used "you'ns" these linguists immediately shouted
"Pittsburgh!".
Lloyd Zusman
On Thu, 24 Jul 1997 17:44:13 -0800, john <jfe...@ucdavis.edu> wrote:
> In article <01bc97f6$071077c0$b8c62299@default>, "Howard L. Goode"
> <someone@somewhere> wrote:
>
> > During my stay in Pittsburgh, PA, I've noticed that the natives use a word
> > sounding like "yinz" or "yunz" as a 3rd-person plural. Does anyone here
> > know the "correct" spelling of this word, and where else it might be used?
>
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> It comes from a contraction of "you ones" so I'd say "you'ns" is the correct
>
> spelling. From what I have heard, it is pretty much confined to
> southwestern PA.
> I remember hearing a radio show with linguists who were trying to determine
> callers
> home region by their accents and choice of words. For most people they
> would take
> a minute or so to narrow down the region to a particular region of the US.
> When someone called in and used "you'ns" these linguists immediately shouted
> "Pittsburgh!".
The original poster said 3rd-person plural. Is this an error, or is
"you'ns" actually used for 3rd-person plural in the Pittsburgh area?
--
Lloyd Zusman
l...@asfast.com
Gary Williams, Business Services Accounting
In article <slrn5th4...@ljz.asfast.net>, l...@asfast.com (Lloyd Zusman)
writes:
>On Thu, 24 Jul 1997 17:44:13 -0800, john <jfe...@ucdavis.edu> wrote:
>> In article <01bc97f6$071077c0$b8c62299@default>, "Howard L. Goode"
>> <someone@somewhere> wrote:
>>
>> > During my stay in Pittsburgh, PA, I've noticed that the natives use a word
>> > sounding like "yinz" or "yunz" as a 3rd-person plural.
>>
>> It comes from a contraction of "you ones" so I'd say "you'ns" is the correct
>> spelling. From what I have heard, it is pretty much confined to
>> southwestern PA.
>
>The original poster said 3rd-person plural. Is this an error, or is
>"you'ns" actually used for 3rd-person plural in the Pittsburgh area?
I assume the "3rd-person" was an error.
My grandmother habitually used "you'uns" as the second person plural. Most of
her life was lived in southern Illinois, but I believe her family came from
West Virginia, reasonably close to southwestern PA.
Gary Williams
WILL...@AHECAS.AHEC.EDU
