associated plurals

[john at research.haifa.ac.il]

Now that you mention it, I have a vague recollection of speakers of Appalachian
English saying e.g. 'Tom-ens' with associative meaning, but it might have been
on The Beverly Hillbillies or something like that, so you better check it.
John




Quoting anne marie devlin <anne_mariedevlin at hotmail.com>:

>
> I'm not sure if this is also the case.  But in northern Hiberno-English,
> there is the possibility of making a plural of certain pronouns to show
> 'otherness'.  It is most widely heard in youssuns and themuns.  The words are
> formed from local versions of subject and/or object pronouns, i.e. yous (pl
> you) and them + ones.  As far as I know, they are used as both subject and
> object pronouns e.g. i don't like youssuns and themuns aren't very nice.
> They can also be used as demonstratives as in 'see themuns over there, they
> were making fun of me'.  I have never come across its us in an inclusive or
> solidary form e.g. ussuns.
> AM




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