There was a good article in the Chicago Tribune today about the word youse. I hope you can access it. This gives a bit of the history
quote:
"Youse" originated in Ireland among speakers switching from Gaelic to English. Gaelic has a second-person plural, sibh, and the Irish thought their newly acquired language ought to have one, too. So they conceived the neat solution of adding an "s" to "you" to make it plural. Irish immigrants brought "youse" to the United States, and it was once widely used in cities where they settled. (It's still widely used in Ireland.) The word can now be heard mainly among older people in ethnic neighborhoods of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, as well as in the mining communities of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. (The Southwest Sider who asked my friend and me if we were lost was definitely Irish, because after asking if we were lost, he offered us a beer and invited us to join him to watch the mourners arriving at a wake across the street.) In Pittsburgh, the word is "yinz," a contraction of the Scots-Irish "you uns."
I don't say youse, just you, and I am not sure why they say we need a second-person plural, do you? Can't you be both plural and singular? It has never seemed confusing to me.
The author says he thinks youse has gradually gone out of use because it became associated with Archie Bunker (whom the author calls a "blue-collar white ethnic"), and baby boomers didn't want to sound like Archie. I think that could be true.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
I still hear yous (youz) in this area. What do youz want to do for supper?
Another weird thing that happens for those who were born on the other side of the Potomac here (making them West Virginians) is the non-use of the past tense of give. Many don't say, "She gave it to me." They will say instead, "She gived it to me." I have always found that peculiar. I can't say this is true for most West Virginians, but it is prevalent in the region near where I live.
That's the thing. People who have a particular linguistic axe to grind often use the "it's confusing" argument but the the fact is that few of these things are ever actually confusing beyond very contrived examples. Native speakers always understand these things in context.
I'm at the teacher training time of year again at the moment and so I hear many language variants from our teachers to be. The most common version I hear for this plural pronoun variant is "y'all" with "y'alls" for the plural form of "yours".This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
Actually the need for a plural 'you' comes up fairly often when you're in a group setting. For example someone suggests something & you want to ask if the rest agree. I grew up saying 'you all' (not the Southern YOUall/ y'all). 'You guys' only in a very informal setting, & not as a teacher because it's too chummy.
Ever hear "yizzle"? = "you all will". I used to hear that in the Philadelphia area.
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