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?