Thursday, February 09, 2006

Yous

Yous: a Northern English dialect idiom for the second person plural - :)

c.f. North American, "y'all"

Worthy of incorporation into standard English?

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:56 pm

    Certainly not. It might lead to the horrific practice of pluralisation of almost any term simply by the addition of the letter s. If distinction needs to be made, I suggest a return to the use of 'thou' for the singular, leaving 'you' to refer unambiguously to the plural.

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  2. Anonymous3:04 pm

    Apparently, this awful term is widespread. Not only the north, Liverpool and Northern Ireland, but Sydney too! Although possibly only the remedial Greek class at Moore College. Which says it all, I think.

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  3. Anonymous4:56 pm

    Ros, in what way are you distinguishing Liverpool from "the north"?

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  4. Anonymous7:22 pm

    Fair point. Although I think there is probably a specific Liverpool dialect which may be distinguished from other northern dialects. Perhaps we could even call it 'scouse'.

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  5. Anonymous7:24 pm

    By the way, Matthew, I was hoping you'd give the two-paragraph summary of your dissertation on your blog for those of us who can't just drop everything...

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  6. Anonymous8:34 pm

    But Ros, that requires thought and work. The point of blogging is to witter aimlessly for a bit about nothing in particular. Perhaps it should be called blagging?

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  7. Anonymous9:20 pm

    Oh well. I've given into the pressure and started blogging too. Shameful. Anyway, there's not much to look at yet, but you'll find it at www.ihaveaquestion.blog.co.uk. Comments welcome!

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  8. I feel I spend most of my time blagging but that I'm badly neglecting blogging.

    Ros, I hope the end of your squatting wont mean that Matthew wont bother to read my vital musings nor that you'll stop correcting my spelling, punctuation and grammar?

    "I Have A Question" is very pretty, by the way. And the "conversational theology" tag is just right.

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  9. Anonymous4:47 pm

    Hmmm...I like the use of "y'all". very "Gone with the Wind"...

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