Youse/You-uns possessive

[Jonathan Lighter]

No, what I meant (and may even remember) is something like,

                 ? This one's mine and those are youse's.

                 ? Put youse's clothes away.

It's been 40-odd years, and I may well be in error about the usage.  But not about the vowel !

And I can't say at this point whether she used "youse" in the singular. Maybe, but don't quote me.

JL

"Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

Subject: Re: Youse/You-uns possessive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ear (perhaps especially the ear of memory) is a funny organ. If
she did indeed say /yuz/ in unstressed (e.g., possessive) position
(e.g., "I saw /yuz/ car over there yesterday") I sure would like to
hear one.

dInIs

>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 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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>Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
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--
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

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