x and them

[Beverly Flanigan]

I am indeed an Olson from Minnesota by birth, and members of my family do
use "X and them" frequently, with both subject and object meanings (I
wouldn't, of course, being an old fuddy duddy prescriptivist in my youth):
Are John and them coming?  It's for John and them.  (Come to think of it, I
believe it's more common in subject position.)

However, the usage is common in creoles too, as an inclusive plural
marker.  Mary Shepherd, interviewed for the "Story of English" video series
of some years ago, refers to a plantation family as "the Smith dem."  I
suspect there's no limit on the potential number included.

At 09:38 PM 3/1/00 +0100, you wrote:
>This is probably a (very) long shot, but I think it's interesting that the
>phrase "X and them" has a 100% equivalent in (old, rural) Danish ("X og
>dem") - and since I read a Canadian university thesis on "The Influence of
>Danish in North American English" I've been on the lookout for such
>otherwise inexplicable expressions that deviate from standard (American)
>English.
>
>So, everybody related to any -(s)sen's or -(s)son's just MIGHT find a
>plausible explanation in their ancestry. In Danish "them" mostly covers family.
>
>However, as Scandinavians mainly settled in the (mid-)West (and not in the
>South), this may, after all, be a long shot too far off the mark.
>
>Erik Moldrup
>Denmark