Heard: "I'm on your guys's side!" [NT]

Wed Jan 23 18:52:40 UTC 2013

I've never heard  /yus/ either (that I've noticed), though I've heard / yuz
/ countless times.

In fact, it's surprising to see "yous" identified as belonging to "northern
Ohio and upper New York State."

In my youth, right after the Vowel Shift, it was stereotypically associated
with NYC, specifically with that quasi-mythical borough called Brooklyn,
home of Ralph Kramden and former home of the expatriate Chester Riley.

JL

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 12:57 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Jan 23, 2013, at 12:44 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
> > There is also the northern Ohio and upstate NY "youse guys."  Alluding to
> > another thread, I've heard "youse" with both /s/ and /z/, although I have
> > no idea what the distribution of these variants might be.  "Youse guys"
> > also gets used as a possessive.
> >
> > Herb
>
> Interesting.  I've seen "yous" as well as "youse", but I've only ever
> heard /yuz/.  (And of course "/yuz/ guys", "/yuz/ guys's", and so on.)
>  I've never heard /yus/ as a pronoun, in upstate NY, NYC, LI, New England,
> or elsewhere in the lands of "youse".
>
> LH
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net
> >wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> >> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> I've definitely heard "your guys's" in the wild, and have noted its
> doubly
> >> marked possessive at the time.
> >>
> >> Neal
> >>
> >> On Jan 23, 2013, at 11:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
> >>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> On the other hands, the form "guys's'" *is* weird - but not uncommon in
> >>> "you guys's."
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 11:04 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> >>> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>> -----------------------
> >>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> Sounds a little odd but not impossible.
> >>>>
> >>>> JL
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 9:56 AM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>>> -----------------------
> >>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>>> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Unless "you guys" has grammaticalized as a second plural pronoun, as
> it
> >>>>> seems to have in some Northern dialects.  I know I've used
> expressions
> >>>> like
> >>>>> "you guys side" but "your guys side" feels odd, with or without the
> >> "'s."
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Herb
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 4:09 AM, Benjamin Barrett <
> >> gogaku at ix.netcom.com
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>>>> -----------------------
> >>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>>> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> >>>>>> Subject:      Re: Heard: "I'm on *your* guys's side!" [NT]
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thank you. Now I see the issue.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> If my buddy is rooting for team X, then one meaning of "your guys's
> >>>> side"
> >>>>>> is the side of my buddy's guys. I think that's okay.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> But even so, if I have two friends rooting for team X, and I am,
> too,
> >>>>> then
> >>>>>> "I'm on your guys's side" sounds right. I don't think I would even
> say
> >>>>> "you
> >>>>>> guys's side" though I agree that it doesn't make sense when
> analyzed.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Benjamin Barrett
> >>>>>> Seattle, WA
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Jan 23, 2013, at 12:00 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 2:13 AM, Benjamin Barrett <
> >>>>> gogaku at ix.netcom.com>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>> If that's the plural second person possessive, that sounds right
> to
> >>>>> me,
> >>>>>> but what do the asterisks mean?...
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Stress, like,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "I'm on YOUR guys's side!"
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> as opposed to those guys's side.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> You would say "on your guys's side" and not "on your side" or "on
> you
> >>>>>>> guys' side"? You'd combine the two, using "you guys's"?
> Interesting.
> >>>>>>> You wouldn't write the combo version, though, right?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org