"Yous/ youse" early exx.

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, by the '40's, this locution was typical of working-class whites
as far west as St. Louis, even though, even then, "youse" - judging by
radio programs, newspaper comic strips, etc. - was still
stereotypically considered to be a feature only of the Flatbush,
Brooklyn, subdialect of New-Yorkese.

-Wilson Gray

On 9/12/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      "Yous/ youse"  early exx.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED's initial exx. of  "yous" (the NYC pronoun) are both from Stephen Crane's "Bowery novel," _Maggie: A Girl of the Streets_ (1893).  _Maggie_, however, was written the previous year.
>
> Of the two exx. cited by OED, one is pretty clearly used in the singular, as the editors note : "Ah, Jimmie, youse bin fightin' agin."
>
> Here is an unmistakably singular ex. from a different author :
>
> 1893 James A. Frye _From Headquarters_ (Boston: Estes & Lauriat) 167 Youse _must_ have pull enough fer t' get me de place on de drum.
>
> Most important, I think, is that by 1892-93 "yous / youse" was already stereotypical of white, working-class, NYC speech.
>
> JL
>
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--
-Wilson Gray