Talk:Yinz

Latest comment: 4 months ago by Hoary in topic Pronoun metrology (not)

Dialect feature edit

I believe copula deletion is a dialect feature independent of y'all vs. yinz.

Rasheed Wallace, quoted in http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/kaufman/2005/06/03/friday/ said: (emphasis mine)

"Oh, we're going to win Game 6. [...] If y'all can't see that, [...] y'all crazy.

Jcreed 21:57, 8 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

Comments edit

"Irish has a singular second-person pronoun, tú"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2620:0:1003:415:1D5B:BACD:3F6E:BC9F (talk) 15:27, 3 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

I am deleting the following segment of the final sentence in this article, "a name some although few native Pittsburghers consider to be a mild pejorative, like calling someone a hick, or a rube, most Pittsburghers love it." This is not only highly argumentative, it is most likely untrue. I live in Pittsburgh, and know very few people that love the term, or would be happy to have it applied to them. Since the assertion is strictly argumentative, in my opinion it does not belong in the article. Yem75 18:23, 5 June 2007 (UTC)Reply

Though they are examples of "Yinz" in popular culture, the references to the New Yinzer & Yinz United (particularly the latter) look a lot like self-promotion in disguise. Thoughts? Yem75 04:10, 20 June 2007 (UTC)Reply
I don't really have much to add to the article, but I'm from southern Missouri and I hear "Yinz" a lot. 64.220.221.216 (talk) 11:39, 3 September 2009 (UTC)Reply
When I lived in southern Missouri, I sometimes heard "you-uns" [juːʌnz] . The article doesn't mention that region -- does anyone know if there's anything in the literature about that? Duoduoduo (talk) 17:35, 5 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
You hear yinz/yunz/you-uns in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. I don't know what the connection between the Ozark Mountains and Pennsylvania is, but the pronoun is undeniably used there. If I find a good reference, I'll add it. 173.185.212.188 (talk) 16:13, 6 November 2013 (UTC)Reply

Here in NC, it is most often pronounced you'uns or yunz but it is quite common. Usually it is used when speaking to a singular person as a representative of a larger group. Example: "How are you'uns getting along at the new house?" would mean "How are you and your family ... ". It is also referred to as meaning "y'all plus two", a joke that I think originated with Lewis Grizzard. --199.90.28.195 (talk) 14:24, 15 April 2010 (UTC)Reply

I like this page —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.97.59.189 (talk) 03:09, 4 June 2010 (UTC)Reply

Ozark Mountains edit

The Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas are another place you hear this pronoun often. Usually rendered as You-uns, it is pronounced very similar to yinz. I grew up in Southern Missouri and live in Northern Arkansas and when I travel I am sometime teased about using it. I have actually never encountered it anywhere else. I have not been to Pennsylvania. I don't know if there's a connection between Pennsylvania and The Ozarks. If I find a good reference, I'll add it as a mention to the article.173.185.212.188 (talk) 16:19, 6 November 2013 (UTC)Reply

Pronoun metrology (not) edit

On 30 July 2008, some IP added, as a "Cited Source", Austin, S. (2003). Professor of Smoot History and Cultural Impact. Smoot's in America 18: 410-411.

When I spotted this, I had no idea of what "smoot" meant. But I mentally substituted either "pronoun" or "sociolinguistics", resulting in:

  • "Austin, S. (2003). Professor of Pronoun History and Cultural Impact. Pronoun's in America 18: 410-411."
  • "Austin, S. (2003). Professor of Sociolinguistics History and Cultural Impact. Sociolinguistics's in America 18: 410-411."

Neither is imaginable. Regardless of the meaning (if any) of "smoot", the addition was obvious bollocks.

I thought I'd look up "smoot". Wikipedia (of course not a reliable source) has this to say:

The smoot /ˈsmt/ is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha by Oliver R. Smoot, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.

(And yes, this comes with a reference.)

Wiktionary adds (sans reference) that it's also "A small opening built into a dry-stone wall to allow sheep (and hares) to pass through; a thirl" ("Britain, dialectal").

Unsurprisingly, Urban Dictionary offers more, also not obviously relevant to yinz.

A few minutes ago, I deleted this thing. So it only lasted fifteen years.

(Pings to sometime editors of this article Mareino, Scottyoak2, Notyourbroom, and Kwamikagami.) -- Hoary (talk) 00:27, 20 December 2023 (UTC)Reply