Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 10:58:06 -0600

From: "Emerson, Jessie J" jjemerso[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]INGR.COM

Subject: Re: mamaw & papaw (was "git-go and southernisms)



I've heard several variations, but I haven't been able to determine a

widespread usage differentiation between generations. (granny, granmaw,

granpaw, meemaw, pop, big mom, etc.)



-----Original Message-----

From: Beverly Flanigan [SMTP:FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU]

Sent: Thursday, 06 November, 1997 7:36 PM

To: ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU

Subject: Re: "git-go and southernisms"



On "shirttail [kin]folk": "Shirt-tail relations" was the term used

by

my mother (b. 1906) in Minnesota. Is/was this term in common use?

I'm

not sure any longer (if I ever was) about the semantic

restrictiveness

of the term--in-laws, distant cousins, cousins of cousins, members

of

the families of the spouses of cousins, etc. Anybody else use it?



Another query: 'Mamaw' (or mammaw) and 'papaw' (pappaw) are

commonly

used for grandmother and grandfather in Southeastern Ohio; but

recently

I heard of 'mawmaw' [m-backward C-m-backward C] and 'pawpaw' (same

vowels) for great-grandmother and great-grandfather. The local

newspaper had a death-memorial tribute with a picture of an

elderly man

and a farewell from a child: "We miss you, Pawpaw," which I

interpreted

as the same term I had previously heard (i.e., great-grandfather),

although of course 'papaw' (grandfather) may also have been

intended.

Can others attest to this two-generation distinction?