
''Yinz'' (see below for other spellings) is a
second-person plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
pronoun used mainly in
Western Pennsylvania English
Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly as Pittsburghese, is a dialect of American English native primarily to the Western Pennsylvania, western half of Pennsylvania, centered on the city of Pittsburg ...
. It is most prominent in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, but it is also found throughout the cultural region known as
Appalachia
Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...
, 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
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
,
Ulster
Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
and parts of
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
and
Northern England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...
. 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
''Y'all'' (pronounced ) is a contraction of '' you'' and ''all'', sometimes combined as ''you-all''. ''Y'all'' is the main second-person plural pronoun in Southern American English, with which it is most frequently associated, though it also ...
'', 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 cheerleader
Radical cheerleading is a performative style of political activism, derived from mainstream cheerleading. Radical cheerleading combines elements of peaceful protest or non-violent direct action with theatrical elements including costuming, specta ...
s call themselves "Yinz Cheer", and an area literary magazine was called ''
The New Yinzer'', a take-off of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
''. Those perceived to be stereotypical
blue collar Pittsburgh residents are often referred to as ''
Yinzer
Yinzer is a 20th-century term playing on the Pittsburghese second-person plural vernacular "yinz." The word is used among people who identify themselves with the city of Pittsburgh and its traditions.
History
"Yinzer" (or "Yunzer") was histo ...
s''.
Yinztagram is a software program with a
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
theme.
YinzCam
YinzCam is an American software company that builds mobile applications, IPTV platforms and augmented-reality experiences. It specializes in creating applications for professional sports organizations. As of 2018, YinzCam's software had been down ...
is a
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
-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 SocietyA site for non-linguists, created by
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
linguist
Barbara JohnstonePittsburghese.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