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Yous

Debater Slayer

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
SalixIncendium said:
At some point between my high school graduation and this morning, "yous" became a word. No...not a slang word. A real honest-to-goodness dictionary word.

It appears in the Merriam-Webster, The Collins, the Cambridge dictionaries, as well as dictionary.com.

What is happening with language right now?!
Click to expand...

I think what is happening with language right now is what has always happened with it: per popular usage, some words change, some neologisms are added to the dictionary, and some older words either evolve or fall out of favor.

English dictionaries and grammar strike me as far less prescriptive than their counterparts in Arabic, French, and some other languages that actually have authoritative language regulators.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
SalixIncendium said:
At some point between my high school graduation and this morning, "yous" became a word. No...not a slang word. A real honest-to-goodness dictionary word.

It appears in the Merriam-Webster, The Collins, the Cambridge dictionaries, as well as dictionary.com.

What is happening with language right now?!
Click to expand...

Ain't youse heard tell about that thar newfangled language? Those fancy-dancy edumacated types come up with these new words all the time. But I done decided to keep using the old words, like my grandpappy used to use.
 
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
SalixIncendium said:
At some point between my high school graduation and this morning, "yous" became a word. No...not a slang word. A real honest-to-goodness dictionary word.

It appears in the Merriam-Webster, The Collins, the Cambridge dictionaries, as well as dictionary.com.

What is happening with language right now?!
Click to expand...
An Irish takeover?
“Youse has got ter pull yer funushes in, in a headwind”, as a cox from Coleraine used to say to us, in the boat.

These Irish are getting everywhere: Angela Scanlon, Aisling Bea, Dara O’Briain…….
 
crossfire

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic Bully ☿
Premium Member
SalixIncendium said:
At some point between my high school graduation and this morning, "yous" became a word. No...not a slang word. A real honest-to-goodness dictionary word.

It appears in the Merriam-Webster, The Collins, the Cambridge dictionaries, as well as dictionary.com.

What is happening with language right now?!
Click to expand...
The 2nd person singular informal thou was used alongside the 2nd person singular formal you for quite a while, but the formal you overtook the informal thou. Being that the 2nd person singular formal you was also the same as the 2nd person plural you, the disuse of the informal thou left a vacuum between the singular and plural you.

I kinda prefer the y'all 2nd person plural variant over yous, as ye can be connected to the contracted y'.
 
beenherebeforeagain

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
Language evolves. Every language that is used today, with the possible exception of 'dead' languages like ancient Hebrew, Roman Latin, Koine Greek, Sanskrit, and so on...they all evolve...change over time...It's why Shakespearian English sounds so different from modern English...and Chaucer is almost incomprehensible and is only Middle English...
 
beenherebeforeagain

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
crossfire said:
The 2nd person singular informal thou was used alongside the 2nd person singular formal you for quite a while, but the formal you overtook the informal thou. Being that the 2nd person singular formal you was also the same as the 2nd person plural you, the disuse of the informal thou left a vacuum between the singular and plural you.

I kinda prefer the y'all 2nd person plural variant over yous, as ye can be connected to the contracted y'.
Click to expand...
there is also 'you'uns'...
 
Jayhawker Soule

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
The language anomaly that I find most curious is the Northern English substitution of the first person plural for the first person singular.
 
SalixIncendium

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
crossfire said:
The 2nd person singular informal thou was used alongside the 2nd person singular formal you for quite a while, but the formal you overtook the informal thou. Being that the 2nd person singular formal you was also the same as the 2nd person plural you, the disuse of the informal thou left a vacuum between the singular and plural you.

I kinda prefer the y'all 2nd person plural variant over yous, as ye can be connected to the contracted y'.
Click to expand...
beenherebeforeagain said:
there is also 'you'uns'...
Click to expand...
"Yinz" is apparently the plural for "you" here in western PA.
 
Jedster

Jedster

Flying through space
SalixIncendium said:
At some point between my high school graduation and this morning, "yous" became a word. No...not a slang word. A real honest-to-goodness dictionary word.

It appears in the Merriam-Webster, The Collins, the Cambridge dictionaries, as well as dictionary.com.

What is happening with language right now?!
Click to expand...
Seen this ?

wimmin

NOUN
  1. non-standard spelling of ‘women’ adopted by some feminists to avoid the word ending -men.
 
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