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L O W L A N D S - L - 18 November 2012 - Volume 01<br><a href="mailto:lowlands.list@gmail.com" target="_blank">lowlands.list@gmail.com</a>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font><font> </font></font></span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font>From: </font><font><span><span name="Mike Morgan"></span></span></font><font><span><span name="Mike Morgan"></span></span></font><font><span><span name="Mike Morgan"><span><span name="Pat Barrett"></span></span></span></span></font><font><span><span name="Mike Morgan"><span><span name="Pat Barrett"><span class="gI"><span name="Montgomery Michael" class="gD">Montgomery Michael</span> <span class="go"><a href="mailto:ullans@yahoo.com">ullans@yahoo.com</a></span></span></span><span><a href="mailto:pbarrett@cox.net" target="_blank"></a></span></span></span><span></span></span></font><font><span><span name="Sandy Fleming"><span><span name="heatherrendall@tiscali.co.uk"><span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></font><span><span name="Michael McCartin"><span><span name="M.-L. Lessing"><span><span name="Douglas Hinton"><span><span name="M.-L. Lessing"><span><span name="Douglas Hinton"><span><span name="M.-L. Lessing"><span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span></span><span></span></span><font><br>
Subject: </font><font><span class="gI">LL-L "Pronouns" 2012.11.17 (01) [EN]</span></font><span><span><span><span><span><br>
<br></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">Dear David<br><br>Historically <i>you'uns</i> and <i>y'all</i>/<i>you all</i> 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 <i>you'uns</i> was being replaced by the social more prestigious form <i>you'uns</i>
. 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 <i>you'uns</i>,
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 <i>you all</i>; <i>y'all</i> was associated with the Deep South. This assessment is consistent with where I live now, in the Deep South of South Carolina, where <i>y'all</i> is certainly dominant. <br>
<br>While there are many who consider <i>you'uns</i> 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 <i>yiuz</i> 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!<br><br>All this means that an author from West Virginia has three choices: to use only <i>you'uns</i>; </span><font face="garamond,new york,times,serif"><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">to use only <i>y'all</i>;
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.<br><br>All the best<br><br>Michael Montgomery<br>University of South Carolina</span><br><br></font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center">
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