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

[Laurence Horn]

OK, I see now that DARE has cites for both they-uns and them-uns going back
to the Civil War period, and sees the latter as an analogical formation
from the 1st and 2nd person versions.

   - 1918  DN
   <https://www.daredictionary.com/bibliography?letterHeading=D#bibl_3038>
   5.19 NC, <https://www.daredictionary.com/search?f_0=reglabel&q_0=NC>
   *Themuns,* them. Probably due to analogy to *we’uns, you’uns,* which are
   much more common than *themuns.*


On Mon, Apr 6, 2026 at 2:04 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

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

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