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

[Laurence Horn]

I’m away from the internet but I’d have thought “them-uns” ( even as subject) would be more likely than “they-uns”.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 6, 2026, at 11:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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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