LL-L: "Specialized terms" LOWLANDS-L, 21.OCT.1999 (05) [E]

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From: Ian James Parsley [parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Kinship terms" LOWLANDS-L, 20.OCT.1999 (05) [E]

All,

I would add to this discussion only that I would only agree to a friend's
children calling me "uncle" if I was very, very close to the friend
(Proverbs 18:24 in fact says "a real friend is closer than a brother").
"Real friends" are very rare - it is interesting on this point that in
English we only have one common word for "friend" - in French, for example,
I can think of three, all with slightly different meanings.

Regards,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"
REPLY NOT WORK? TRY:
parsleyij at hotmail.com

----------

From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Kinship terms

Sandy wrote:

>>Another example of a useful West Country word not found in standard
English would be "didicoy", which means someone who lives a traveller's
lifestyle, but isn't of Romani
descent.<<

The Oxford "Atlas of English Dialects" gives "didicoy" as the West Country
term for what in the rest of England is generally called a "gypsy" (or some
version of that word), and that's how I would understand it. "Gypsy", of
course, can mean either a Romani or someone living in similar circumstances,
ie an itinerant worker such as a tinker or horse-breaker.

 "Didicoy" (with various spellings) is a Romani word used by the Romani to
describe other "gypsies". I doubt if the distinction is one which has
(historically) been of great concern to the settled population. "Gypsy" has
become politically incorrect, I feel.

Nowadays "traveller" has come to mean a person who lives either as a "gypsy"
or has adopted a travelling lifestyle unconnected with work, as in "New Age
traveller".

The "Atlas" shows "butty" (workmate) outcropping in three smallish
South-Western areas within a sea of "mate". "Pal" (used in the same sense in
the North-East) is from Romani "plal".

We (East London suburbs, 1940s) called our next-door neighbours
"Uncle/Auntie Mayhew" but our parents came from Norfolk so this might not have
been normal
local usage. My memory is that my parents called neighbours by their surname
so perhaps that was the determining principle.
In the 19th century (George Eliot and Jerome K Jerome come to mind) it seems
to have been common to call aunts and uncles by their surname.

According to my mother, around 1950 the term "uncle" was used by local
children further down the social scale to describe their mother's lover, but
I'm not
sure that this is really a distinct usage.

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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