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 ...
Marked. Interesting...
We need to red up this thread.
I remember being made fun of when I was in high school for saying “I recon.” I’m originally from VA and we all spoke that way. I hear Brits say that all the time.
Yous got that right.
Many of the appalachain tunes can trace their melodies back to England/ScotIreland too. Change of words and a few melodic adaptations.
I never associated ‘youse’ with the Scots Irish. Until the recent,last 30 yrs, massive hispanic and Asian influx into NYC, youse was always associated with the poorer ethnic neighborhoods of NYC. I grew up with youse the same way I grew up with jeet jet, and dropping interior Rs, Noo Yawk, fowud, pattun. So I’m curious as to the Scots Irish connections. Until now the only place I could go and not be immediately identified as a New Yorker were certain sections of ethnic New Orleans.
I grew up in Western PA...I know what it means to “red up” :-) I was also born a “yinzer” but spent enough time in the military and in the deep south that I’m now a “y’aller”, although I still go fishing in a crick...
The source of the “Southern Indiana” drawl.
BTTT
A “Scot’’ is a person from Scotland. “Scotch’’ is liquor.
They say “yoos” in Chicago, too.
I associate ‘youse’ with the northeast — cities, actually -— and ‘youins’ with the lower Midwest, like lower Illinois and Indiana.
‘You-all’ is south.
English at present doesn’t have a second person plural so all of these are attempts to provide one.
I still can’t figure out where the hills accent came from. I know that ethnically we are Scots-Irish but lowland Scots don’t sound anything like the Appalachian or hills speech.
On the other hand the true northeastern accent, and the Boston accent, do sound like some of the speech patterns in rural England.
People from Newfoundland sound like they just got off the boat from Ireland.
Ya’ll don’t let the bossman catch you reading this thread.
Oops...Scot/Irish. It’s really an easy mistake...even for a Scot...Not very nice when you think about it.
They may say it there, but my first encounter with "youins" and where I consistently hear it today is in....east Tennessee. My wife is from an upper middle class family in Knoxville and I don't hear her say it as much. But my brother-in-law in Sevier County sure does.
Jay, from what I understand the New York dialect is spoken in two places, the NY area and certain segments of New Orleans. NY traders moved to NO and brought their dialect with them. The NY dialect still exists and being a Bronx, Irish, Catholic cop I speak it. It’s just undergoing changes just like it always has since the Dutch.
By virtue of it being New Orleans it can’t be the “New York drawl.” It is known as the 9th ward drawl because historically it was present primarily among ethnic whites in the 9th ward.
Yes, you’re right, it is used in East Tennessee.
From what I have heard the East Tennessee accent is in a class by itself. they say ‘bewk’ for book, in other words pronouncing ‘book’ to rhyme with ‘boo’. East Tennesseans do sound a bit like Lowland Scots, or the ‘Lallands’ dialect.
A beautiful style of speech BTW.
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