nana

[Beverly Flanigan]

Maybe that's where it originated (I have no idea), but the few people I
know who've used it have no Italian ancestry, so they picked it up
somewhere.  I'm under the impression that it caught on because it avoids
the "ageism" associated with "grandma."


At 08:43 AM 2/14/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>I have always assumed that the "nana" = grandmother speakers were
>simply using a phonetically altered form of Italian "nonna." If this
>is not the obvious etymology, I'm quite happy to give it up.
>
>dInIs
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>Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU> wrote:
>
>Ah, Pop-Pop!  My ex-husband from Baltimore used that term for his
>grandfather, and I think he said Mom-Mom for grandmother.  Is this just a
>Maryland/New Jersey thing, or is it more widespread? (I think of Nana as
>more recent and "fancier.")
>
>to Kathleen E. Miller's:
>
>  Dad, however, had recollection of the place going back to the
>mid-40's when he would go down the shore with Pop-Pop and Nana.
>
>I grew up in the early '60's calling my paternal grandparents Pop-Pop
>and Nana; they were from Reading, Pennsylvania, so it was at least a
>little more widespread. I hadn't ever thought of it before but I
>assume it was my father's terms for his own grandparents. I'll bcc
>this to him and report back.
>
>John
>--
>
>
>*** John McChesney-Young  **  panis at pacbell.net  **   Berkeley,
>California, U.S.A.  ***
>
>
>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>        Asian and African Languages
>Wells Hall A-740
>Michigan State University
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