"
"Uns," too, had once a grammatical sanction, for "uon" or "un" was the
Early English for "one," and "uns" was more than the one. In many parts
of the South are found the expressions, "you-uns" and "we-uns." The
mountaineer says "you-uns" when he is addressing more than one person.
It is one of his plural forms for "you," and he is adopting an Early
English ending. But the true mountaineer does not employ "we-uns" The
"we" to him is plural, the suffix is superfluous. In the same way he
says "ye" when speaking to more than one, but he uses "you" when
addressing an individual. He seems, too, to make a distinction between
"you-uns" and "ye." The former is usually the nominative and the latter
the objective.
When he wishes to convey the idea of past tense, the ending "ed" is
popularly employed, but when he may he drops the "e." While he will
properly use the present tense of a verb he goes out of his way to add
the "(e)d." So he says "know-d," "see-d." But he is not always
consistent. He prefers "kilt," the old form, to "killed."
Generations passed in which they had little opportunity to attend
school, and there are today a number of the older people of the "Valley
of the Three Forks o' the Wolf" who can not read nor write. Some of the
younger generation have been away to college, but, as with Alvin York,
most of them grew to manhood with only a month or a month and a half at
school during a year, with many years no school in session.
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