Yinz

''Yinz'' (see below for other spellings) is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in Western Pennsylvania English. It is most prominent in Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the cultural region known as Appalachia, located within the geographical region of the Appalachians.

History and usage

''Yinz'' is a derivation from the original Scots-Irish forms "Yin(s)" (meaning 'One(s)) and related contractions of ''you ones'', ''yous ones'' and ''ye 'uns'', a form of the second-person plural that is commonly heard in Scotland, Ulster and parts of Ireland and Northern England. In the first- and third-person, standard English speakers use distinct pronouns to denote singular and plural. In the first person, for example, speakers use the singular ''I'' and the plural ''we''. However, the second-person pronoun ''you'' performs a double duty since it is both the singular form and the plural form. Crozier (1984) suggests that during the 19th century, when many Irish-speakers switched to speaking English, they filled that gap with ''you ones'', primarily because Irish has both the singular second-person pronoun ''tú'' and the plural form ''sibh''. The following, therefore, is the most likely path from ''you ones'' to ''yinz'': ''you ones'' > ''you'uns'' > ''youns'' > ''yunz'' > ''yinz'' . Because there are still speakers who use each form, there is no stable second-person plural pronoun form in the southwest or central Pennsylvania area, so the pronoun is variably referred to or spelled as ''you'uns'', ''y'ins'', ''y'uns'', ''yunz'', ''yuns'', ''yinz'', ''yenz'', ''yins,'' or ''ynz''.

In other parts of the United States, similarly regional British, Irish and Scots-Irish speakers brought over different dialectal second-person plural forms. Examples include ''yunz'', which is used in and around Middletown, Pennsylvania; '' youse'', which is found mainly in New York City and Chicago, the Philadelphia dialect and New Jersey; and ''y'all'', which is ubiquitous in the South.

A similar form with similar Irish and Scots roots is found in the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. Rarely written, it is spelled ''yous'' and is usually pronounced as or something between and . It is sometimes combined with ''all'' for emphasis, as in, "are yous all coming to the party?" That usage is also common within Carbon and Schuylkill Counties, Pennsylvania.

In popular culture

Being one of Pennsylvania's most famous regionalisms makes ''yinz'' a badge of pride. For example, a group of Pittsburgh area radical cheerleaders call themselves "Yinz Cheer", and an area literary magazine was called '' The New Yinzer'', a take-off of ''The New Yorker''. Those perceived to be stereotypical blue collar Pittsburgh residents are often referred to as ''Yinzers''.

Yinztagram is a software program with a Pittsburgh theme.

YinzCam is a Pittsburgh-based software development company.

At the end of every episode of ''VH-1's Top 20 Countdown'', host Jim Shearer always says "I'm Jim Shearer, and I'll see yinz later."

In the TV series '' One Dollar'' (2018), set in a rust belt town (shot in and around Pittsburgh), the Yinz address is frequently used.

Waypoint YINZZ in Newell, West Virginia marks the approach to Pittsburgh International Airport.

See also

* ''Ye'' (pronoun)
*

References

Further reading

*Barbara Johnstone and Andrew Danielson,
'Pittsburghese' in the Daily Papers, 1910-1998: Historical Sources of Ideology about Variation
, ''New Ways of Analyzing Variation'' conference, October 2001.
*Johnstone, B., Bhasin, N., and Wittkowski, D., "Dahntahn" Pittsburgh: Monophthongal /aw/ and representations of localness in Southwestern Pennsylvania. ''American Speech'' 77(20):146-166.
*Johnstone, Barbara, Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect. ''Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics''. Oxford: OUP.
*Crozier, A. (1984). The Scotch-Irish influence on American English. ''American Speech'' 59: 310–331.

External links

Pittsburgh Speech and Society
A site for non-linguists, created by Carnegie Mellon University linguist Barbara Johnstone
Pittsburghese.com
(more humorous than scientific)


PBS Series, "Do You Speak American?""Philadelphyinz Reps The Burgh with Brotherly Love"
Pittsburgh City Paper

{{Pittsburgh

English-language slang
Modern English personal pronouns
Culture of Pittsburgh
Second-person plural pronouns in English