"Yous/ youse" early exx.

[Wilson Gray]

On 9/14/05, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Yous/ youse" early exx.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm not sure, but I would bet that yous(e) was current in other Northern
> industrial cities too long before 1940--anyone have any early examples
> from places like Boston, Detroit,
> Chicago, or Cleveland?  Like /d/ in dese, dem, dose & dat, this was a
> "Brooklynism" rhat I'd guess was widespread.  Possibly, it'd be
> strongest where there were the most Irish immigrants.
>
> Yours,
> Paul Johnston

Re: Irish. That's a good point. Though my old neighborhood in St.
Louis in the '40's was made up of Irish, Jews, and blacks, the Irish
were in the great majority. There were four Catholic parishes all
within five blocks of my house.

-Wilson Gray

> On Tuesday, September 13, 2005, at 03:55  PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Yous/ youse" early exx.
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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
>


--
-Wilson Gray