4 ms·

My wife talks this way all the time, and when we were first dating it really bothered me. Eventually I came across an explanation of the regional-ness of it on

My wife talks this way all the time, and when we were first dating it really bothered me. Eventually I came across an explanation of the regional-ness of it on the internet somewhere, and I asked her if any of her family is from the Pittsburgh area. As far as she knows, they aren't, but they are from Columbus, OH, which is just down the highway a bit. I heard that Pittsburgh-ians also tend to use "yinz" for the second-person plural, which I find much better than a plain "you," and much, much better than "You all" or "y'all". (Though I'm now told it is not as commonly used as I assumed it was) Anyway, I love reading about the various ways american english has diverged, given time and distance.

exception_e 10y ago
Another one is "yunz". People don't really use "yinz" and "yunz" too often though :(
- untothebreach 10y ago
  Really? That's disappointing. I'm going to edit my post a bit bc apparently I've been misled :-/
  - blatherard 10y ago
    Actually, you'll hear plenty of "yinz" in the greater Pittsburgh area, but more often in the outlying rural areas surrounding the city.
    - dgacmu 10y ago
      Concur. It's not quite as widespread - what I've seen is that even quite a few non-natives tend to adopt "needs washed" after living in the region for long enough, but I don't hear yinz used unconsciously from people not born in the region. But there's plenty of yinz - and the city embraces its yinz-ness.
    - lowmagnet 10y ago
      I always heard it round dahntahn. Norseide and Souside, mostly. In the Nordills, it wasn't as common, but my gramma sed things like worsh and spigot but she grew up dahn Etna an aht. Goodness that was hard to type.
  - exception_e 10y ago
    People will use it jokingly though :) "Are yunz gonna eat lunch n'at?"
- moron4hire 10y ago
  My home town takes a lot of its accent from Baltimore, though it's still over two hours away. I never got used to saying "you'ns". There is a definite glottal stop in the middle. Annoying.
eximius 10y ago
It's "y'all", a contraction of "you all", not "ya'll". Which makes infinitely more sense than "yinz" which is apparently derived from "you ones" or something like that? I also find that 'dropping of to be' sounds completely unnatural to me. It sounds like something I'd expect a non-native speaker to say. My personal favorite English change is the cot-caught merger. Of course, all of my preferences make sense because I grew up internationally or in the south - I wasn't caught up in the cot-caught merger and I picked up y'all because there has to be SOME second person plural!
- untothebreach 10y ago
  Thanks for pointing out my "y'all" typo -- fixed. I just don't like the way "y'all" rolls off the tongue, and never enjoyed using it. But, as you say, there has to be SOME second person plural. I just like the way "yinz" sounds, I guess. /shrug
  - cam_l 10y ago
    If you want to be different you could always try out the Aussie version.. 'youse'
    - smcl 10y ago
      Oh that's cool, I didn't know it was in use outside Scotland. I'd always pegged yous/youse as a Scots thing
  - jeremyswank 10y ago
    Actually, 'you' is the second person plural in English. If you want a singular, you'll need to recover 'thou' from history's dumpster.
    - nothrabannosir 10y ago
      It was. Language evolves.
  - GeneralTspoon 10y ago
brandonmenc 10y ago
"Yinz" is equivalent to "yous" - which is supposedly a Philadelphia thing - but everyone up in Erie prefers it to "yinz." "Yinz" is very, very localized.
jemfinch 10y ago
FWIW, I was raised in Cincinnati and spent almost a decade in Columbus, and "needs fooed" sounds perfectly normal to me, too.
choosername 10y ago
i like the. aussi's yous
TheCondor 10y ago
Yinz is more flexible. Like it is used to address a singular person: "hey, yinz" or a group: "what are yinz guys doing?" It's much more of a novelty until you hear it a lot, and then you start to hate it. "Yinz guys" sounds particularly offensive to my ear for some reason

exception_e 10y ago

Another one is "yunz". People don't really use "yinz" and "yunz" too often though :(

untothebreach 10y ago
Really? That's disappointing. I'm going to edit my post a bit bc apparently I've been misled :-/
- blatherard 10y ago
  Actually, you'll hear plenty of "yinz" in the greater Pittsburgh area, but more often in the outlying rural areas surrounding the city.
  - dgacmu 10y ago
    Concur. It's not quite as widespread - what I've seen is that even quite a few non-natives tend to adopt "needs washed" after living in the region for long enough, but I don't hear yinz used unconsciously from people not born in the region. But there's plenty of yinz - and the city embraces its yinz-ness.
  - lowmagnet 10y ago
    I always heard it round dahntahn. Norseide and Souside, mostly. In the Nordills, it wasn't as common, but my gramma sed things like worsh and spigot but she grew up dahn Etna an aht. Goodness that was hard to type.
- exception_e 10y ago
  People will use it jokingly though :) "Are yunz gonna eat lunch n'at?"
moron4hire 10y ago
My home town takes a lot of its accent from Baltimore, though it's still over two hours away. I never got used to saying "you'ns". There is a definite glottal stop in the middle. Annoying.

eximius 10y ago

It's "y'all", a contraction of "you all", not "ya'll". Which makes infinitely more sense than "yinz" which is apparently derived from "you ones" or something like that? I also find that 'dropping of to be' sounds completely unnatural to me. It sounds like something I'd expect a non-native speaker to say. My personal favorite English change is the cot-caught merger. Of course, all of my preferences make sense because I grew up internationally or in the south - I wasn't caught up in the cot-caught merger and I picked up y'all because there has to be SOME second person plural!

untothebreach 10y ago
Thanks for pointing out my "y'all" typo -- fixed. I just don't like the way "y'all" rolls off the tongue, and never enjoyed using it. But, as you say, there has to be SOME second person plural. I just like the way "yinz" sounds, I guess. /shrug
- cam_l 10y ago
  If you want to be different you could always try out the Aussie version.. 'youse'
  - smcl 10y ago
    Oh that's cool, I didn't know it was in use outside Scotland. I'd always pegged yous/youse as a Scots thing
- jeremyswank 10y ago
  Actually, 'you' is the second person plural in English. If you want a singular, you'll need to recover 'thou' from history's dumpster.
  - nothrabannosir 10y ago
    It was. Language evolves.
- GeneralTspoon 10y ago

brandonmenc 10y ago

"Yinz" is equivalent to "yous" - which is supposedly a Philadelphia thing - but everyone up in Erie prefers it to "yinz." "Yinz" is very, very localized.

jemfinch 10y ago

FWIW, I was raised in Cincinnati and spent almost a decade in Columbus, and "needs fooed" sounds perfectly normal to me, too.

choosername 10y ago

i like the. aussi's yous

TheCondor 10y ago

Yinz is more flexible. Like it is used to address a singular person: "hey, yinz" or a group: "what are yinz guys doing?" It's much more of a novelty until you hear it a lot, and then you start to hate it. "Yinz guys" sounds particularly offensive to my ear for some reason