Words for grandparents

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Mor-mor" is indeed Swedish, and Norwegian, so it's not just a made-up
term.  The male term is "Far-far."  These are just reduplications of the
words for mother and father.  My mother and her siblings used Mor and Far
when they conversed in Norwegian, but switched to Ma and Pa when talking in
English.  (The /r/ is trilled, of course.)

At 08:52 AM 10/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>A friend of Swedish descent called his grandparents "Mor-mor" and "Pa-pa",
>(the two vowels equal in the latter.)  He claims that this is common among
>Swedes.  Just yesterday I saw (in Minneapolis) a bumper sticker referring
>to "Mor-Mors" collectively.
>
>At 07:47 PM 10/19/2000 -0700, Gabrielle Kindell wrote:
> >I'm from Eastern Kentucky, and it is very common for people to call their
> >grandparents Mamaw (for grandmother) and Papaw (for grandfather). I'm not
> >sure exactly how far this trend reaches, and I wonder if these words might
> >also be used in other parts of the country?
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   Tom Kysilko        Practical Data Services
>   pds at visi.com       Saint Paul MN USA
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm