Posted on 03/14/2010 10:30:44 AM PDT by jay1949
Are yous up for a few more words on the subject of Appalachian English? The words for today being "yous" and "you'ns," along with variant spellings like "youse," "yooz," "you-uns," and "youens," and their Scotch-Irish roots. The traditional speech of the Backcountry is not a "corrupt" dialect, as is often assumed by those from "yonder" and “away,” and its roots can be traced to the places from whence the Backcountry settlers originated. "Yous" or "youse" as the plural form of "you" is of ancient origin and came to America with Scotch-Irish settlers in early colonial times.
(Excerpt) Read more at backcountrynotes.com ...
Songcatcher (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210299/
...deals with this very subject, only in musical lyrics. Beautiful folk singing and fiddle playing in this movie.
When we traced my father’s mother branch of the tree, we found that her grandparents were listed on the same ship’s manifest coming in at the port of GalVESton...Ironically there was also a listing of a person with the same name as my Great-grandfather on my mother’s side of the family.
We teased mom and dad that the reason that they look so much alike is they were related in the ol’ country.
It is my paternal grandfather branch that came from Ulster area. Sis went over to find any history. The church burnt in 1843 all record were lost. They came over in 1841. She did meet a gentleman the same age as my father with Gardner last name. She said he could have been dad’s double.
He also was able to explain that Jane and Jenny were the same person.
LOL Since I am a complete mix of Irish,English,Welsh,and German you can only imagine what comes out of my mouth. Y’all and youse is very common to hear here.
Yes, older Texans pronounce it Gal VEZ ton. because the person who founded the settlement was named Galvez, with the accent on the last syllable (don’t know how to get an accent out of this keyboard).
Dad is ninty and pronouces it that way because that’s how his family here in Indiana said it. The family were greenbacks* who came up the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers. The settled in Southern Indiana and ran one of the early stone quarries (Before Oolitic was discovered) Several Courthouses in the southern part of the state have their names attacked as stone masons.
My sis jokes if they send the greenbacks back will we have to go too.
Flelfya — I’ve been there — it’s kinda north-east of Ballimer, MD.
For anyone interested in the Scotch-Irish contribution to Appalachian English, I recommend two papers by Michael Montgomery of the University of South Carolina:
1. The Roots of Appalachian English: Scotch-Irish or Southern British? (Appalachian Studies Conference, 1990).
2. How Scotch-Irish Is Your English? The Ulster Heritage of East Tennessee Speech (Journal of East Tennessee History 1995).
I have hard copies of these but they are probably still available on-line.
Aye laddie, only then.
My father worked as a maintenance supervisor for a local school district. One of his janitors was from way rural Appalachia. One day he asked where another guy was.
Clarence answered, “He be up in yon balcomb.” (Translation..He’s up in the balcony of the auditorium.)
All the other guys laughed. My dad didn’t. Self-educated, he recognized archaic speech for what it was. He was very fond of Alistair Cooke’s special “The Story of English” and often remarked on the patterns he ran into in different parts of the South.
Amazing...
thanks! Probably just what I have been looking for for years.
The people who first populated New York City and surrounding area then called New Amsterdam in the
1620s on were the Dutch, English, Flemish Walloons and French Huguenots
These languages and dialects influenced the New York Dialect.
Adding to this were the Germans and Irish Catholics who came over mostly in the 1840s to New York.
The Scotch Irish did not have any influence on NYC
The Scotch Irish coming from Co. Donegal and Tyrone Northern Ireland in the 1740s to the Cumberland area of Pa. and shortly many migrated to the area of Bath, Allegeny and
Botetourt Cos Virginia. Decades later to W. VA, Kentucky,
Tenn. and later many to what became the Virginia Military
Dist area of Ohio. One reason Old lines of Ohio people sound akin to them.
*ping of interest*
Ping to Scotch Irish dialect and W. Pa
thread and link to article
I remember how much fun some of my English teachers used to have LOL.. The ones who grew up in “them thar hills” knew better than to try and change things too much.. It was the younger ones who seemed to push so called proper English the most..
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