Youse/You-uns possessive

[Jonathan Lighter]

Regardless of grammar, my friend's mother (a Brooklyn native, born about 1925) clearly said
/ y u z /, _not_ / y U z / or / y ^ z /  or / y I z /.

JL

Ed Keer <edkeer at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Ed Keer
Subject: Re: Youse/You-uns possessive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are they /y^zIz/ or /y^z/?

--- "Dennis R. Preston"
wrote:

> I have recordings of both "youse" (/y^z/) and
> "you-uns" (y^nz) as
> possessives. I have no evidence of the "full forms"
> (/yus/ or
> /yu^nz/) as possessives, but I wouldn't expect it
> since the possessed
> N is likely to have stress, and I appear to have no
> examples where
> contrastive stress is placed on 'youse' or
> 'you-uns.'
>
> dInIs
>
> >Any native speakers out there willing to confirm or
> >deny that youse or you-uns can be used in the
> >possessive.
> >
> >I grew up around youse speakers, but don't trust my
> >judgements. To me, youse is not possible as a
> >possessive:
> >
> >1. We went over to youse'/youse's house.
> >
> >Ed
> >
> >watchmesleep.blogspot.com
> >
> >
> >
>
>____________________________________________________
> >Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
> >http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1036 USA
> Office: (517) 453-4736
> Fax: (517) 453-3755
>

watchmesleep.blogspot.com



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