Unlike earlier thou, it was used primarily for plural address, and in some dialects for singular address as well.[18] The pronoun was first observed in the southern states of the US among African-American speakers, although its precise origin is obscure. The pronoun spread rapidly to white speakers in those southern states, and (to a lesser extent) other regions of the US and beyond. This pronoun is not universally accepted, and may be regarded as either nonstandard or a regionalism.[19]