[log in to unmask]" type="cite">
Here in Pittsburgh (Western PA), some locals refer to themselves (orally and
on bumper stickers) as "yinzers" - derived from the use of "yinz" for the
plural "you." This feature of the local dialect ("Pittsburghese") is viewed
by locals with humor and a kind of self-deprecating pride, as in "we think
it sounds awful, but this is who we are." Some local sociolinguistics have
done interesting research on Pittsburghers' attitudes toward their own
dialect.
There are various Pittsburghese "translation" websites (e.g.,
www.pittsburghese.com), one of which translates John Kennedy's famous line
as: "Ask not wah yinzes country can do fer you n'at. Ask wah yinz can do fer
yinzes country."
I don't know if yinz is the same as Warren's "y'uns." Perhaps "y'uns" is
more common in rural areas in Western PA?
Amanda
On 9/25/07 4:38 PM, "Warren Sieme" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
My Mom was from Western Pennsylvania. She would never think of
referring to the plural you as "you all," or as "y'all." To her, if
more than one of you were going somewhere, it would be, "Are y'uns
goin' dawntawn?" If it was a really big group, it would be "y'unses"
Warren
-----Original Message-----
From: Veit, Richard <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 1:57 pm
Subject: Y'all and you guys
I had the reverse experience from the one
Bill Spruill quoted:
As
a native Southerner, I was amused (but not very surprised) to notice
that my
students in Michigan
have their own plural version as well ³you guys.² It¹s
used for both men and women (so the ³guys² part doesn¹t have
its usual masculine connotation) and, as kind of a clencher for the
argument
that it¹s acting as a unitary pronoun, the possessive in informal speech
is ³you guys¹s² (the last word sounds exactly like ³guises²).
As a freshly transplanted Northerner in Wilmington, North
Carolina, thirty years ago, I was invited by my chair
to play tennis. Some confusion arose about which tennis balls on the
court
belonged to whom, and when the student on the adjacent court asked me,
³Y¹all
got all y¹all¹s balls?² I knew I wasn¹t in Iowa any more.
Dick Veit
________________________________
Richard Veit
Department of English
University of North Carolina Wilmington
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
http://mail.aol.com
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
ATEG Members: