Information about Yinz
Yinz is a second-person plural pronoun used mainly in southwest Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, but it is also found throughout the Appalachians. (See: Pittsburgh English.)
Yinz is the most recent derivation from the original Scots-Irish form you ones, which is probably the result of a contact situation between Irish and English. When standard-English speakers talk in the first person or third person, they use different pronouns to distinguish between singular and plural. In the first person, for example, speakers use the singular I and the plural we. But when speaking in the second person, you performs double duty as 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 this gap with you ones, primarily because Irish has a singular second-person pronoun, tu, as well as a plural form, sibh. The following therefore is the most likely path from you ones to yinz: you ones [yu wʌnz] > you'uns [yuʌnz] > youns [yunz] > yunz [yʌnz] > yinz [yɪnz]. Because there are still speakers who use each form, there is no stable second-person plural pronoun form in southwest or central Pennsylvania—which is why this pronoun is variably referred to or spelled as you'uns, yunz, yinz, yins or ynz.
Yinz is often coupled with the word guys in conversation (equivalent to you guys), as in, "Are yinz guys gonna watch the ball game?"
Obviously, in other parts of the U.S., Irish or Scots-Irish speakers encountered the same gap in the second-person plural. For this reason, these speakers are also responsible for coining the yous found mainly in New Jersey and the ubiquitous y'all of the South.
Yinz's place as one of Pittsburgh's most famous regionalisms makes it both a badge of pride and a way to show self-deprecation. For example, a group of Pittsburgh area political cheerleaders call themselves "Yinz Cheer," and an area literary magazine is The New Yinzer, a take-off of The New Yorker. Those perceived to be stereotypical blue collar Pittsburghers are often referred to as Yinzers.
Yinz is the most recent derivation from the original Scots-Irish form you ones, which is probably the result of a contact situation between Irish and English. When standard-English speakers talk in the first person or third person, they use different pronouns to distinguish between singular and plural. In the first person, for example, speakers use the singular I and the plural we. But when speaking in the second person, you performs double duty as 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 this gap with you ones, primarily because Irish has a singular second-person pronoun, tu, as well as a plural form, sibh. The following therefore is the most likely path from you ones to yinz: you ones [yu wʌnz] > you'uns [yuʌnz] > youns [yunz] > yunz [yʌnz] > yinz [yɪnz]. Because there are still speakers who use each form, there is no stable second-person plural pronoun form in southwest or central Pennsylvania—which is why this pronoun is variably referred to or spelled as you'uns, yunz, yinz, yins or ynz.
Yinz is often coupled with the word guys in conversation (equivalent to you guys), as in, "Are yinz guys gonna watch the ball game?"
Obviously, in other parts of the U.S., Irish or Scots-Irish speakers encountered the same gap in the second-person plural. For this reason, these speakers are also responsible for coining the yous found mainly in New Jersey and the ubiquitous y'all of the South.
Yinz's place as one of Pittsburgh's most famous regionalisms makes it both a badge of pride and a way to show self-deprecation. For example, a group of Pittsburgh area political cheerleaders call themselves "Yinz Cheer," and an area literary magazine is The New Yinzer, a take-off of The New Yorker. Those perceived to be stereotypical blue collar Pittsburghers are often referred to as Yinzers.
Cited Source
- Crozier, A. (1984). The Scotch-Irish influence on American English. American Speech 59: 310-331.
Other Sources and External Links
- Johnstone, B. and Danielson, A., "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.
- Pittsburgh Speech and Society A site for non-linguists, created by Carnegie Mellon University linguist Barbara Johnstone.
- Pittsburghese.com (more humorous than scientific)
- What Do You Call a Steeler Fan?
- Are yinz from Pittsburgh?.
- PBS Series, "Do You Speak American?"
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns.
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Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world.
In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.
In English, nouns, pronouns, and demonstratives inflect for plurality.
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In the English language, singular and plural are the only grammatical numbers.
In English, nouns, pronouns, and demonstratives inflect for plurality.
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Nickname: City of Bridges, Steel City, City of Champions, The 'Burgh, Iron City, Steel Town, The College City, Roboburgh
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Nickname: City of Bridges, Steel City, City of Champions, The 'Burgh, Iron City, Steel Town, The College City, Roboburgh
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Pittsburgh English, popularly known as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and surrounding Western Pennsylvania.
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Y'all, sometimes misspelled as "Ya'll", "Yawl", or "Yaw", and archaically spelled "You-all", is a fused grammaticalization of the phrase "you all".
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Self-deprecation (etymologically better is self-depreciation) is a form of humor in which people or comedians make jokes about themselves, their shortcomings, or their culture, usually without being guided by any underlying self-esteem issues.
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The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. Originally a weekly, the magazine is now published 47 times per year with five (usually more expansive) issues covering two-week spans.
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blue-collar worker is an idiom referring to a member of the working class who performs manual labor and earns an hourly wage. Blue-collar workers are distinguished from Tertiary sector of industry service workers and from white-collar
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A yinzer is a stereotypical blue-collar Pittsburgh native, named for his or her heavy Pittsburghese accent that features frequent use of the word yinz, which is Pittsburghese for the plural term of "you", as well as ending sentences with "'en 'at" which is meant to be "and that.
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Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It began as the Carnegie Technical Schools, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1900. In 1912, the school became Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees.
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