"Yous/ youse" early exx.

[Paul Johnston]

I'm not sure, but I would bet that yous(e) was current in other Northern
industrial cities too long before 1940--anyone have any early examples
from places like Boston, Detroit,
Chicago, or Cleveland?  Like /d/ in dese, dem, dose & dat, this was a
"Brooklynism" rhat I'd guess was widespread.  Possibly, it'd be
strongest where there were the most Irish immigrants.

Yours,
Paul Johnston

On Tuesday, September 13, 2005, at 03:55  PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Yous/ youse" early exx.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW, by the '40's, this locution was typical of working-class whites
> as far west as St. Louis, even though, even then, "youse" - judging by
> radio programs, newspaper comic strips, etc. - was still
> stereotypically considered to be a feature only of the Flatbush,
> Brooklyn, subdialect of New-Yorkese.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
> On 9/12/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>> Subject:      "Yous/ youse"  early exx.
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> OED's initial exx. of  "yous" (the NYC pronoun) are both from Stephen
>> Crane's "Bowery novel," _Maggie: A Girl of the Streets_ (1893).
>> _Maggie_, however, was written the previous year.
>>
>> Of the two exx. cited by OED, one is pretty clearly used in the
>> singular, as the editors note : "Ah, Jimmie, youse bin fightin' agin."
>>
>> Here is an unmistakably singular ex. from a different author :
>>
>> 1893 James A. Frye _From Headquarters_ (Boston: Estes & Lauriat) 167
>> Youse _must_ have pull enough fer t' get me de place on de drum.
>>
>> Most important, I think, is that by 1892-93 "yous / youse" was already
>> stereotypical of white, working-class, NYC speech.
>>
>> JL
>>
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>
> --
> -Wilson Gray