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[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [FULL LIST]
’s contraction of was to ‘s; hence I’s, they’s. [DARE labels this usage “especially Midland, South”]
1925 Dargan Highland Annals 94 We’s well up Smoky, an’ the coldest wind ablowin' that ever made an i-shickle out of a man’s gizzard. 1938 Bowman High Horizons 48 My paw tuck land ‘round old Blanket Mountain yander when I’se jist a little shaver, back atter the Civil War, an’ we’ve been rooted as the trees ever since. 1941 Stuart Men of Mts 99 Ma would take the top of the house off if she’s to see you come in at this gate! 1961 Coe Ridge OHP-333A We’s down there a few days ago. 1983 Dark Corner OHP 9A That was three years that’s awful hard on me when I was about, when I was ten, eleven, and twelve years old. 2008 Rosie Hicks 1 We just kindly, you know, stayed where we’re living.
’s suffix On a verb to indicate agreement with a third-person-plural subject, except if the subject is a single adjacent personal pronoun. [< Scotland, northern Ireland, northern England; following a rule dating to medieval times in Britain and inherited through Ulster from Scotland]
1774 Dunmore’s War 99 These men tells me they are fresh Signs of Indians Seen Every Morning about the plantation at Forbes. c1815 (in 2007 Davis Co Line Baptist Minutes111) the time has Roald around when those godlike virtures Seames to have fled from amongst us. 1840 McLean Diary 68 The woods Looks Green. 1864 Walker CW Letters (April 17) pray for me for our Saver ses Blessed ar they that holds out fathull untell Death. 1916 Combs Old Early English 292 The third person plural often ends in -s, the E[arly] E[nglish] northern ending. The Midland -en is rare, as a verb form. The former usage is common all through the Southern mountains, e.g. “Heavy rains hurts the vine-patches.” 1939 Hall Coll (Tow String Creek NC) If you boys wants to be ill with me, why, I’m small but I’m hard to handle. 1954 GSMNP-19:9 It’s where people gathers up and shucks corn, in the fall when they get the corn gathered. 1973 GSMNP-88:67 That’s the way cattle feeds. They feed together. 1989 Matewan OHP-9 Our preachers. Ibid. 28 There’s still some old people around knows what happened to them.