Words for grandparents

[Chase, Jeffrey]

Not just English speaking sub-Saharan Africa, Nancy.  In the DROC (former
Zaire), the capitol, Kinshasa, is usually referred to as Kin, and the
'second city' of Lubumbashi is often referred to colloquially as Lubum.

Jeff

Jeffrey E. Chase
Getronics Government Solutions
"Have red pencil.  Will travel."
Opinions expressed in this e-mail are solely those of the author, and not
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> -----Original Message-----
> Nancy Elliot said:
>
> >  'Moms' for 'Mom' reminds me of "Wills"  (William) and Bugs (as in
> Bunny).
> >Is this a shortening of a '-sie' diminutive ending? (Popsie? Bugsie?)
>
> Wills for "William" likely comes from the English (i.e., British
> English) use of clipping+s as a diminutive (or at least an
> endearment/nicknaming thing).  Another very common one (that I think
> you also hear in the US, but not half as much--esp. not for men) is
> Jules (often spelt here as Jools or Joolz) for Julie or Julian.  In
> southern Africa, the English speakers do this to a lot of place names
> as well--my old university is Witwatersrand, but it's called Wits
> (the 'w' is pronounced like a 'v'), Durban is Durbs, Gaborone is
> Gabs.  Zimbabwe is just Zim, not Zims, though--maybe you can't put it
> on a nasal.
>
> Lynne
>