Fwd: on the possessive front

[Jonathan Lighter]

Interesting collection, Arnold. Abhorrent, but interesting.

Now "You-guys's" is starting to look relatively old-fashioned to "me-guys" (1,753 Google hits)*.

*(Just kidding !   But I bet for a second you were paralyzed with fear ! )

JL

"Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Arnold M. Zwicky"
Subject: Fwd: on the possessive front
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

message 4, the last: from singler to me...

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John V Singler
> Date: February 27, 2005 8:58:14 PM PST
> To: john.singler at nyu.edu
> Subject: Re: on the possessive front
>
> Google reports 2370 hits of "your guyses" and 2220 of "you guyses." A
> number of the "you guyses" tokens are not possessives; they simply
> reflect a pronominal form.
> (Remember when we thought the forms of pronouns in American English
> were I/me, you, he/him, she/her, it, we/us, they/them, and maybe
> yall?)
> John
>
> Some examples
> Your guyses
> i need your guyses help hi all just dropped in im from chicago and
> was just
> wondering . . .
>
> thats wierd...cuz like... your guyses guy cusins/bros dont want
> you to have bfs or anything or talk to guys [on a list for South-Asian
> Americans)
>
> I wish my name was as cool as your guyses!
>
> You guyses as possessive
> [Many of these hits repeat the same passage indicating that
> Pittsburghers think of it as a Pittsburghism]
> You hear "you guyses," and don't think twice. (Example..."you guyses
> house is
> nice"). -
>
> You guyses as non-possessive
> What my question is, is do any of you guyses do pool running?
>
> ... You guyses have an amazing candy sound.
>
> Since my MOM threw away my MICROPHONE, I need you guyses help!
>


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Make Yahoo! your home page