one - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
one, ane, wan, yin pron (following adjectives and pronouns. In Ulster yin predominates in Ulster-Scots areas, wan in Mid-Ulster ones. In the U.S. the only form known is one, which is sometimes reduced to ’un or ’n.) See also them’uns, us’uns, we’uns, yous’uns. [oed ’un (at one pron) late 17th century→; cf snd yin pron/adj 3]
Ulst.:
1804 Orr Poems 34 Peace, peace be wi’ ye - ah! return / Ere lang and lea the daft anes.
1861 Hume Rabbin’s Ollminick [Mon. Jennewerry 5] Oul’ Chrissimis Day: They say it’s more luckier nor the new one; but most o’ the young ones knows nothin’ about the oul’ times afore the stile wos changed, an’ the people lost their eleven days.
1910 Byers Glossary ‘He’s a rale bad’un’ (= undesirable).
c1910 Wier Bab McKeen 18 We went at the work like a pair o’ guid yins.
1959 Gregory Ulster Ballads 86 All o’ a suddint, I met a maid— / The wee-est wee ane that I’ve ever seen.
1981 Pepper Ulster-English Dict 85 She’s a funny yin, that new woman next door.
1983 Marshall Drumlister 61 It’s sartin to turn out a bad ’un, / The baste that ye buy from McFadden.
1990 Todd Words Apart 50 That’n is as conthrary as a bag o’ wheezles. Ibid. 131 Them’ns is all powerful smart.
1997 Robinson Grammar 60 In Mid-Ulster, ‘one’ is pronounced wan and is so written by dialect writers. The pronunciation (and spelling) of ‘one’ as yin is shared between east Ulster and South-West Scotland, although in Older Scots it was always written as ane.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 280 iz yins = we, us; oor yins = our family; them yins = those people, that crowd; yer ain yins = your family; yous/yuz yins = you people, you lot.
U.S.:
1939 Hall Notebook 9:25 [The community] finally got so that the old’uns and bad’uns died out.
1942 Hall Phonetics 86 which’un, that’un, next’un, big’un, another’un.
1967 Hall Coll This here’un is made out of metal.
1969 GSMNP-37:2:15 I don’t recollect any of his young’uns.
1974-75 McCracken Logging 6:98 I had an old coat just like that un’s in your coat down there. Ibid. 10:4 They’s all sizes from little’uns to big’uns.
2004 Pittsburgh Dictionary When a Pittsburgher is asked, ‘Which apples do you want?’ they reply ‘Those ones’, instead of simply saying ‘Those’.
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)
