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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ignoring the several obvious typos above...I'm wondering if "yinz," the
Western Pa. version  of "you-uns," originated long ago in "ye-uns," unknown
to OED.
(Their 1810 ex. of "you uns," from Pa., is spelled "youns," which IMO could
represent either "you-uns" or "ye-uns.")

1879 _ Inter-Ocean_   (Chicago, Ill.) (Sept. 20) 12 [GenealogyBank]:
What's ye'uns names?    [Fiction set out west; notice it's possessive.]

1892 _Racine Daily Times_ (July 6) 5 [Ibid.]: Who be ye'uns?  [Civil War
fiction: speaker is from NC.]

1893 _Evansville [Ind.] Journal_ (Nov. 23) 3 [Ibid.]: Ye uns air all solid
fur the ticket.

1901 _Anderson [S.C.] Intelligencer_  (March 13) 8 [Ibid]: Ye uns can't say
that.

1901 _Times-Picayune_ (N.O.) (Aug. 18) 27 [Ibid.]: The varmints 'ud be plum
'shamed ter claim kin ter ye uns.   [Fiction set in Tenn.]

Etc., etc.

The earliest "yinz" I've seen, so spelled,  is from Pittsburgh as recently
as 1968, when it was noted as "singular and plural."

JL

On Mon, Apr 6, 2026 at 10:11 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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."
>


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

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