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?