Yinz
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Yinz is a second-person plural used almost exclusively in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region in the Western Pennsylvania of the United States. It was derived from the Scottish term "you ones". It may also be referred to or spelled as "yunz", "you'uns" or "ynz". It is part of a local dialect referred to as Pittsburgh English or "Pittsburghese".
Yinz is synonymous with "you all" or "y'all" in the Southern United States. Like "y'all", yinz's place as Pittsburgh's most famous regionalism 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. The traditional blue collar Pittsburgher is often referred to as a "Yinzer". Although it is considered by many native Pittsburghers to be a mild pejorative, like calling someone a hick, or a rube.
Sources
- [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?"]
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