[Lingtyp] addressing the daughter as Mummy

[Nestor Hernandez-Green]

Hi, Sergey,
Mexican Spanish (and possibly other Spanish varieties in Latin America)
does something similar: adults may call little boys *papito* (Dad-DIM) and
little girls *mamita*(Mom-DIM), it depends rather on the gender of the
child than on the relation between them and the adult.
Hope this helps
*= Néstor Hernández-Green =*
*Sitio web: **goo.gl/jsw4zs <http://goo.gl/jsw4zs>*


El sáb., 15 de ago. de 2020 a la(s) 14:26, Sergey Loesov (
sergeloesov at gmail.com) escribió:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> In various cultures (those I know of happen to be mostly Islamic) the form
> of address can be copied by the addressee. Thus, when a daughter addresses
> her mother as “Mummy”, the mother often reciprocates, saying to the
> daughter something like “yes, Mummy”, or “what, Mummy…” (Same of course
> with a son and his father.)
>
> In particular, I came across this kind of exchange in my fieldwork with
> Kurdish (Kurmanji) and some contemporary Aramaic varieties in Upper
> Mesopotamia and Syria, but this phenomenon is also current in the Soqotri
> language, an unwritten Semitic language spoken on the Socotra Island in the
> Indian Ocean, southeast of Yemen.
>
> Are we aware of explanations for this kind of usage? Are there
> cross-language studies of this kind of facts?
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> Sergey
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