(no subject)

[jbsegal]

Is 'yinz' singular, plural, or both?

Comments

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Plural. It's Pittsburghian for "youse".

[foms.livejournal.com]

That's a new one on me, unless it is you'uns.

[chadu.livejournal.com]

Second person, plural.

"Yinz go and get some chipped ham."

CU

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

Plural, just like "y'all".

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I think it's plural.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

I agree with chadu

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Well, you're obviously not a yinzer...

[blk]

What they said. Also "yunz," less well-known, but pronounced similarly.

[justinjs.livejournal.com]

"y'all" is singular. The plural form is "all y'all."

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

y'all is both singular and plural.
"all y'all" is used for extra emphasis.

-- former Southerner :)

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

In my native dialect, yall ain't never used as a singular, it's only the plural of you, though alla yall is the emphatic plural.

[chadu.livejournal.com]

I b'leev that "yinz" is North of da 'Burgh, and "yunz" is South of da 'Burgh (where I grew up).

I blame Myron Cope.

CU

[foms.livejournal.com]

If it is you'uns, I've always thought that it was a contraction of you ones. Clearly plural.

[bikerwalla.livejournal.com]

I respectfully disagree; all these words are the result of attempts to patch the Queen's English because second person singular is "you" and second person plural is also "you".

"You go get the firewood" is ambiguous by itself. We don't know whether the speaker is addressing one person or a group.

"You all", "y'all" for short, is second person plural. This can be replaced with "you guys", "youse", "yinz", "you lot", and they all mean the same thing.

"All y'all" is emphatic and means "Every last one of you".