LL-L "Pronouns" 2012.11.18 (02) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 18 November 2012 - Volume 01
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From: Montgomery Michael ullans at yahoo.com <pbarrett at cox.net>
Subject: LL-L "Pronouns" 2012.11.17 (01) [EN]

Dear David

Historically *you'uns* and *y'all*/*you all* are both common
second-person-plural pronouns in vernacular West Virginia, according to
research done by the Linguistic Atlas project in the 1930s.  It's no doubt
accurate to say that there has always been some variation socially in
Appalachia as well.  I've been studying the English of Appalachia for 30+
years, and the only comment I recall seeing is in Joseph Hall's 1942
monograph onGreat Smoky Mountain speech of Tennessee/North Carolina.  There
he says that *you'uns* was being replaced by the social more prestigious
form *you'uns* .  It would be easy to oversimplify the situation, which has
both many sub-regional and social dimensions.  Growing up in East Tennessee
in the 1950s/60s, I rarely heard *you'uns*, so I was surprised a few months
ago when a colleague at Carson-Newman College, just outside Knoxville, told
me that he hears undergraduates use it every week.  What I heard growing up
was usually *you all*; *y'all* was associated with the Deep South.  This
assessment is consistent with where I live now, in the Deep South of South
Carolina, where *y'all* is certainly dominant.

While there are many who consider *you'uns* old-fashioned or rural, the
term is quite trendy in some places, especially southwestern Pennsylvania.
It has become a trademark Pittsburghese expression, or rather the
one-syllable pronunciation *yiuz* has.  The latter form is easy to find on
the internet.  West Virginia is barely an hour from Pittsburgh, so perhaps
West Virginians who use that form are trendily old-fashioned!

All this means that an author from West Virginia has three choices: to use
only *you'uns*; to use only *y'all*; or to use both, one for some
characters and situations and the other for elsewhere.  Each choice has its
advantages and disadvantages.  Most writers opt for one of the first two,
simply because they're simpler to employ.

All the best

Michael Montgomery
University of South Carolina

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