"youse guys" in the 1890s.

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 1895 _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ (Oct. 13) 20 [ProQuest]: Hi, there! head 'em
> off, youse guys!

Still common among working-class white speakers even in my day:
1940's-1962, together with "No, NP never!" instead of "No, NP didn't!"
in denial of accusations.

It's always annoyed me that, when it comes to the use of _youse_,
everybody always attributes it only to stereotyped Brooklynese and
always ignores its existence in St. Louisan. Stop dissing The Lou!
WTF, youse?! ;-)

BTW, my gratitude to you for finding it in print, Jon. :-)

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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