"man" vs. "guy" redux

Millie Webb millie-webb at CHARTER.NET
Thu Nov 21 03:41:47 UTC 2002


And then there is the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) gender neutral
pronoun, "youse guys" and "youse guys's"  (yes, I have heard even that
second one on enough occasions from more than one person, to actually label
it "productive" as a dialectal phrasing, and not just one confused person's
last-second scramble.)  And you can't (for the most part anyway) use just
"youse" in the UP, in my experience: it has to be "youse guys".  -- Millie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Herbert Stahlke" <hstahlke at WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: "man" vs. "guy" redux


> My point exactly.  As I went on to say, "you guys", as a form of address,
is
> a periphrastic 2p, not the lexical "guy".  I can say "you guys" to a group
> of women, but I can't point to a group of women and say to someone else,
> "See those guys?".
>
> Herbb
>



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