All of yous
Y’all.
Youse.
You-uns.
You guys.
All of you.
These are just some of the regionalisms that Americans use to substitute for the lack of a different plural form of “you” in English. My favorite is the one employed in my mother’s hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania: “Yins.” Yes, Virginia, there are many thousands of people in the Pittsburgh area who say “yins” when they’re addressing a group of people. My theory is that “yins” is a further contraction of “you-uns.”
Even though in my own speaking voice I use just “you guys” and “all of you,” I love every one of these locutions. For playwrights, they’re useful baubles to adorn characters with. But until yesterday I had forgotten one, and shame on me. Spending the day in Philadelphia, and seeing the Bill Irwin show “The Happiness Lecture” – developed with an ensemble of Philadelphia theatre artists – reacquainted me with one of the best plural-you forms in the country. Here it is, and no, I’m not making this up, and please keep your mind out of the gutter:
Yizz.