nana: no creole substratum

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 10/23/00 6:28:31 PM, flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU writes:

<< Regardless of the source(s), I have a feeling that 'Nana' has now become a
pop term, at least among Americans.  If we like a term, we teach our kids
to use it for Grandma--esp. if she says the latter term makes her feel old! >>

I don't think that "NANA" is wired into the brain, but I also don't think
that it comes from Yiddish or whatever. My relevant ancestors spoke English
for several generations before I came along, yet In the 1940s my brothers and
I used "Nana" for our great-grandmother (born 1860). We called our
grandmothers "Dada." Nobody else in the neighbohood used these terms--many of
the neighbor kids used "Bubbie" (from Slavic). I think for us, NANA & DADA
were baby-talk terms that appeared without any kind of outside influence--as
knee-babies we said "Na-na" and "Da-da" and the adults assumed these were
meaningful utterances made by their extremely bright offspring (I WAS the
oldest!) and that we were addressing/referring to/naming adults when we used
them.