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sluggo
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 1379
Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
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 Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:00 pm
Post subject: Your'n |
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Here's one I haven't seen brought up- the locals 'round these parts often use your'n for a 2nd person singular possessive adjective (not sure if it's used in plural).
The derivation seems perceptible enough: "your one" would be more logical than yours following the pattern of "this one" and "that one". That is an assumption though.
Seems to manifest as an Appalachian Scots-Irish usage.
Is that regionally accurate?
Interestingly Dictionary.com sez:
Origin:
1350–1400; ME, equiv. to your + -n, as in mine
-wheras yours is described as about 100 years older, a mere eyeblink on that scale...
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skinem
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 27 Apr 2006
Posts: 1090
Location: Middle Tennessee
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 2:16 pm
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Your'n is common among "country" folks around here in Middle Tennessee and northern Alabama.
I don't recall hearing it in the Pacific Northwest--certainly not by the natives of that place.
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"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson |
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misterdoe
Junior Lexiterian
Joined: 13 Mar 2009
Posts: 25
Location: New York City area
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:27 pm
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| My Baltimore born-and-raised cousins used "your'n" all the time when we were kids. No "his'n," though. I know their mother (my father's sister) was born and raised in South Carolina, but I don't know just where their (step)father was from... |
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Stargzer
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 2325
Location: Crownsville, MD
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Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:23 pm
Post subject: Re: Your'n |
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| sluggo wrote: | ... The derivation seems perceptible enough: "your one" would be more logical than yours following the pattern of "this one" and "that one". That is an assumption though.
...
Origin:
1350–1400; ME, equiv. to your + -n, as in mine
... |
I prefer the second derivation above because of the parallel structure it implies:
my -->mine
your--> yourn
Be careful how you use and pronounce it though, as in "What's mine is mine and what's yours is your'n."
Note that this is different from "YORN," a label I've seen used in programming for a routine that asks for a Yes OR No answer from a user in a script.
(Historical note: during the Poor People's March On Washington, some of the locals often referred to Resurection City as Insurrection City and the Reflecting Pool as Lake Huron, pronounced with a silent "H." Those were different times ...)
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