Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Thems

"Thems that know aint tellin'"
"Quelli che lo sanno non lo dicono", 
right?
Is "Thems" a common slang expression?
-- 
Enrico C
"He got pickled on vodka"
pickled: drunk (c) Dave's ESL Cafe Slang

 Is "Thems" a common slang expression?
It's not slang, it's just an indicator of lack of education.


I hesitate to agree, it might be an aspect of dialect.  Dialect is often 
confused with lack of education or intelligence in the English-speaking 
world.  I don't know enough about American dialects to pontificate.
Cheers
-- 
John G Davies

 I hesitate to agree, it might be an aspect of dialect.
Indeed. How could a mother-tongue English speaker be ignorant of *their*
language to the point that *they* cannot use the most common personal
pronouns?
Such core words are learned by children in their very first years of life,
so mastering them has very little to do with education.
I often see "they", "them" etc. used as singular pronouns. I understand that
this is a way of avoiding choosing between "he" and "she" when one doesn't
know the sex of the person being referred to, or doesn't want to mention it
for some reason.
Probably, this created a certain uncertainty whether "they" is being used as
a singular or plural pronoun, hence the need to create, in the colloquial
language, ex novo plurals such as "theys" and "thems".
I know that such a thing already happened with "you": as modern English has
lost the distinction between "thou" and "ye", many dialects (especially in
the US) have introduced some sort of neologism for a "really plural" 2nd
person pronoun, such as "yous", "you all", "you alls", "y'all", etc.
Ciao.
Marco
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

 person pronoun, such as "yous", "you all", "you alls", "y'all", etc.
Why not? (witty face)
Bye, FB

 world.  I don't know enough about American dialects to pontificate.
In this case I believe it is just a colloquialism, derived from a dialect
(but necessarily that of the speaker). I could say such a phrase in a
jocular sense.
What makes this dialect inferior to the standard? The message is loud and
clear!
Zz



Anywy, that sentence was on uk.local.london, so I shoud think it's
London slang (*if* it's slang). 
-- 
Enrico C    (yes, it's always me!)

 London slang (*if* it's slang).
It could be a lot of places, including London and parts of the rest of the
world. :)
It is slang / dialect / colloquial... You pays yer money an' ya takes yer
pick!
Zz

personal pronouns?
With English being a world language there is an incredible variety of 
"Englishes" spoken as mother tongues, all influenced by the native 
languages.
Here there are many second generation immigrants (often bilingual) to 
whom English or is more or less a mother tongue, so there is plenty of 
room for confusion.
UK-Afro-Carribean English, particularly its Jamaican variety has quite a 
big influence on "street talk", this "dialect" is heavily influenced by 
"Patois", a Creole language, which partly consists of English words with 
an African Grammar.
-- 
John G Davies

 London slang (*if* it's slang).
I would not call it slang. Slang is a subset of expressions within a
standard language that is used in informal settings. If you take the
position that it is an expression of dialect, which of course is different
than slang, you might be able to make a case for that. I'd expect you to
identify the dialect and the concomitant treasury of expressions that form
it. You might also argue that ebonics is a dialect that should be taught in
urban schools. Chissà? If thems that know ain't tellin', I reckon it's cause
thems those that found gold in them there hills and they be wantin' to keep
it to themselves.

pronouns?
A me mi sembra facile, invece.
Insomma, anche se mi hanno imparato l'italiano e conosco le parole più
meglio di altri, posso sempre sbagliarle, no?
saluti,
Peltio
Note for native speakers: do not try to translate the above. It's
maccheronics.

it to themselves.
ROTFL!
(Rolling on them floor laughing)
Peltio