Connections
Add to Technorati Favorites
Search
Login
Powered by Squarespace
National Debt Clock
Please Help Support Backcountry Notes

Paypal Button:

OR:

E-MAIL CONTACT FORM

About Me

028_25Ae.jpg

I am an ex-urbanite who escaped the city life and has lived for the past 29 years in a rural, mountainous area of southwestern Virginia that in colonial and early-American times was part of the "Backcountry." This is the true melting pot of the U.S.A., its culture and traditions dominated by "born fighting" Scotch-Irish immigrants and enhanced by German, Highland Scot, Dutch, Welsh, and yeoman English settlers. Having absorbed and inculcated the history, values and views of the Backcountry, I would like to share information and insights from the place where America began. - - Jay Henderson

"My weariness amazes me . . . ." - - Bob Dylan ("Mr. Tambourine Man").

 

“The law often allows what honor forbids.” - - Bernard-Joseph Saurin, French lawyer, poet, and playwright.

 

« Vintage Views of Asheville, NC | Main | Teetotally Speakin' Appalachian »
Sunday
Mar142010

More on Appalachian English

Are yous up for a few more words on the subject of Appalachian English? The words for today being "yous" and "you'ns," along with variant spellings like "youse," "yooz," "you-uns," and "youens," and their Scotch-Irish roots.

As set forth in my previous screed on this topic, Teetotally Appalachian English, the accents and usages of Appalachia developed primarily from the English introduced by Scotch-Irish immigrants, blended here and there with the influence of German, Dutch, Welsh, Scottish, and yeoman English settlers. The traditional speech and vocabulary of the Backcountry is not a "corrupt" dialect, as is often assumed by those from "yonder" and “away,” and its roots can be traced to the places from whence the Backcountry settlers originated.

{To continue click HERE}

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend