them'uns - 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.
them’uns, them’ns, them wans, them yins pron Those ones, ‘them ones’.
Ulst.:
1934 Cavanagh Dunleary Legend 17 Who’d wonder at that seein’ the bad work some of them wans under him does be at.
1990 Todd Words Apart 131 Them’ns is all powerful smart.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 280 them yins = those people, that crowd.
U.S.:
1918 Steadman NC Word List 19 them-uns = probably due to analogy with we’uns, you’uns, which are much commoner than them-uns.
