Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

People in some parts of the UK say "yous" for second person plural. So it isn't quite gone.


We also say "youse" in Australia (or at least my region of Australia, it's definitely informal though)

Since moving overseas and studying other languages (Slavic and Baltic languages) I think it's definitely something needed in English. I think I still use youse, I never note it. It's just something that's so naturally useful it wouldn't occur to me that I'm saying something weird or forced.


We also have that in some parts of Canada, rural & northern Ontario especially.


Rural Wisconsin too, though mostly the older generations.


The Dictionary of American Regional English (I first heard about it in A Way With Words - https://waywordradio.org/johnny-on-the-spot/ )

https://www.daredictionary.com/search?q=yous&searchBtn=

While I don't have a subscription to it (I haven't justified $50/year for that to myself) you will see that "youse" comes up with an "explore more" for Great Lakes, North Midland, and Northeast and "youse-all" shows up as Middle Atlantic.


It's very much perceived as a vaguely "redneck" or "hoser" way of speaking here.

Another similar dialect isogloss-ish that often goes with that is dropping the past-tense "I saw" and replacing it with the past-participle "I seen". Or, alternatively, another way of putting it is that it's dropping the "have" in "I've seen"

Middle class parents and teachers definitely scolded kids for speaking this way when I was growing up. Was seen as lower class.


We do on the West Coast of Scotland at least.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: