Date:  Thu, 6 Nov 1997 20:36:04 -0500
From:  Beverly Flanigan <FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.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?