[Ads-l] us-uns, they-uns

[Jonathan Lighter]

Neither is in OED. I confess "they-uns" sounds unfamiliar. OED actually has
a 1954 ex. hidden in a citation for "slow," n., but nothing else.  (OED
does included "we-uns.")


1864 _New-London Chronicle_ (Apr. 14) 1 [Genealogy Bank]:  Genuine Alabama
poetry...It's hard for yoe 'uns [sic] and we uns to part/ For us 'uns all
know you have got we uns heart.

1864 [David Ross Locke] _The Nasby Papers_ (Indianapolis: C. O. Perrine)
38: Nacher intended  em to rool and us uns to serve.

1865 [David Ross Locke, in] _New-Orleans Times_ (July 3) 12
[GenealogyBank]:  A proud, high-sperited people like us uns.

1865 _Hancock Jeffersonian_ (Findlay, O.) (Oct. 13) 3 [GenealogyBank]
[cartoon captions]: Us uns receiving the returns. They uns ditto.

1866 _N.Y. Tribune_ (Nov. 3) 4 [Ibid.]: I had to do it, else they uns would
have killed we uns.

1867 _Daily Missouri Democrat_ (Dec. 4) 3 [Ibid.]: New Grammar...We uns
done it. You uns done it. They uns done it.

1868 _Bossier Banner_ (Benton, La.) (Jan. 25) 3 [Ibid.]: "They uns" have
served "we uns" likewise.

1868 _Springfield [Mass.] Republican_ (Mar. 13) 2 [Ibid.] : Grinning at the
mad pranks "they-uns" play [in Alabama].

2003 _Winston-Salem Journal_ (Apr. 26) 11: 'They-uns' have memories from
childhood.

The geographical spread in the 1860s is remarkable.  One reason for the
evidently very late appearance of these terms in print must surely be that
writing was scarce about life in the Southern Appalachians befor the Civil
War (and even later than that).

"Uns" forms seem to have made quite an impression Yankees when they
encountered them. (Except possibly those from W. Pa., where "youns" is
documented as aerly as 1810).

JL
-- 
"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