A western-Pennsylvania bastardization of the phrase "you ones", which addresses more than one person. Since we "western PA people" do things like slur words together, replace almost all vowel sounds with a "schwa" sound (the upsidedown e in the dictionary), replace long "a" sounds with long "e" sounds, and refuse to pronounce any "t" that isn't the first letter of a word, this became "you-ens", then "youns", "yunz", and finally "yinz". Someone must have put this particular pronunciation and spelling in print at some point, since it seems to be the most accepted way to say and write it.

The aforementioned characteristics of our accent are probably at least partly due to the diverse heritage of the population of this area, which is mostly made up of Italian, Irish, Polish, Native American, and African American people, NOT inbreeding, as someone in an earlier entry stated.

The word has become associated with Pittsburgh in particular, whose natives are commonly referred to as "yinzers".
"Are yinz comin' up fer Chrissmiss?"

"What're yinz doin'?"

"I seen yinz at the fleamarket yesterdee."
by Sam Sinister March 14, 2008
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A western-Pennsylvania bastardization of the phrase "you ones", which addresses more than one person. Since we "western PA people" do things like slur words together, replace almost all vowel sounds with a "schwa" sound (the upsidedown e in the dictionary), replace long "a" sounds with long "e" sounds, and refuse to pronounce any "t" that isn't the first letter of a word, this became "you-ens", then "youns", "yunz", and finally "yinz". Someone must have put this particular pronunciation and spelling in print at some point, since it seems to be the most accepted way to say and write it.

The aforementioned characteristics of our accent are probably at least partly due to the diverse heritage of the population of this area, which is mostly made up of Italian, Irish, Polish, Native American, and African American people, NOT inbreeding, as someone in an earlier entry stated.

The word has become associated with Pittsburgh in particular, whose natives are commonly referred to as "yinzers".
"Are yinz comin' up fer Chrissmiss?"

"What're yinz doin'?"

"I seen yinz at the fleamarket yesterdee."
by Sam Sinister March 11, 2008
Get the yinz mug.
Short for "you ones"; could also be used in place of:
you
you guys
you all
y'all
Yinz goin' to da wordStillers/word game?
by Munda November 22, 2002
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Yinz means "You ones," not "You guys."
Yinz goin to Primanny's after the Stiller game n nat?

Translation: Are you going to Primanti Bros. after the Steeler game? "n nat" is a useless filler that us Picksburghers use all the time n nat.
by non-yinzer November 7, 2006
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a collective pronoun referring to more than one person
Correct grammar: "yinz is jagoffs"
by shef January 16, 2004
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Pittsburguese for "you guys." It actually doesn't combine any words together. It's not two words combined with letters taken out, which is common for Pittsburguese. It's just a made up word that stands for "you guys."
Jamie asked his companions, "Where are yinz goin'."
by Patrick Judge October 28, 2004
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Pittsburgh term for all of you
What are yinz going to do?
by jnemes65 May 26, 2015
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