A stalwart and consistently divisive member of the Australian English language, youse appears to be here to stay.
This unusual word was first recorded back in the 1890s, and is is a borrowing from Irish English, where it is usually spelt yez. It is interesting to note that Irish Gaelic did have a separate plural for the form of the second person pronoun, and thus it is only sensible that they created one in their own variety of English.
1901 `You’ve stuck at home pretty constant, and ye and Lizer can have a little fly round. It’ll do yous good,’ she said.
Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career 187
That said, English you does not distinguish singular from plural. The form youse does provide a plural, contrasting with singular you, but there is strong resistance to it, in spoken as well as written usage, and it remains non-standard.
Each week, we have a look at a slang word from Australian English. You can see other Aussie Word of the Week posts from the Macquarie Dictionary here.
