associated plurals
anne marie devlin
anne_mariedevlin at hotmail.com
Tue Apr 5 08:15:30 UTC 2011
I'm not sure if this is also the case. But in northern Hiberno-English, there is the possibility of making a plural of certain pronouns to show 'otherness'. It is most widely heard in youssuns and themuns. The words are formed from local versions of subject and/or object pronouns, i.e. yous (pl you) and them + ones. As far as I know, they are used as both subject and object pronouns e.g. i don't like youssuns and themuns aren't very nice. They can also be used as demonstratives as in 'see themuns over there, they were making fun of me'. I have never come across its us in an inclusive or solidary form e.g. ussuns.
AM
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