Addressing as “Son”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, this is Monica Wallace from Irving, Texas.

Hello, Monica. How are you doing?

Hi, Monica.

Hi.

What’s going on? What can we help with?

Well, my step-grandfather, Raymond Granddaddy Black, he had eight granddaughters, of which I was one, and only one grandson.

But he called us all son.

He was born in around 1898, and I believe he was born in the northeast area of Texas around Sulphur Springs, where he and my grandmother lived when we were born.

And I don’t remember him calling us by our names or calling us anything other than son.

Anyway, so my question is, where would he have gotten that little ism?

Monica, how interesting.

So he would call you son when he was addressing you directly, or would he introduce you as, this is Monica, my son?

No, he would say, thank you, son.

You know, one would bring him a glass of iced tea, or he’d say, hey, son, go ask your grandmom.

And, you know, and it followed up with whatever he needed us to do.

And he didn’t talk a whole lot, but he was a cattleman, cattleman.

And so he just always addressed us as son.

You know, it wasn’t like, hey, Ma, come over here for a minute.

It was like, hey, son, come over here for a minute.

Oh, gosh.

Isn’t that wonderful?

S-O-N or S-U-N, do you think?

S-O-N.

Okay.

That’s wonderful.

Yeah.

And he was from Northeast Texas, right?

Yes, ma’am.

Okay.

I ask because there is an entry for this in the Dictionary of American Regional English,

And it says that it’s especially in North Carolina, this term of address to a female as well as a male.

And in fact, there’s an entry from a journal in 1946 that describes son as an affectionate term applied to a small boy and sometimes a small girl, usually in times of crisis.

Isn’t that interesting?

But he used it just any old time.

Right. And so not only are you not his son, I mean, you’re not only you’re not his daughter, you’re not his granddaughter.

I mean, you’re his granddaughter. So it’s different in a couple of ways.

There’s a more modern component to this, too, though, right?

Son is incredibly common in African-American vernacular English to refer to people who aren’t your son and sometimes women and sometimes between women.

I’ve actually seen this among being used by two Latinas on the subway in New York City, where one of them said to their son, that’s not how it goes.

And just talking to whatever they were talking about.

But as a term of address, it is still incredibly common.

But it’s African-American almost exclusively except for white folks who’ve borrowed it from African-American English.

Okay. Oh, interesting.

And, you know, speaking of African-American English and the word niece, in parts of the country, particularly the South, sometimes the word niece can refer to either a niece or a nephew.

Or these are my nieces and it’ll be two guys.

Huh, interesting.

Yeah.

That one.

Yeah.

So sometimes, and well, and in fact, the word girl itself, I mean, back in the 13th or 14th century, girl could refer to either a boy or a girl.

Wow.

But I have not ever heard a real-life example of sun used in this way, so I’m thrilled to hear this.

Oh, well, I appreciate it. It’s great.

Well, Monica, thank you so much for your call.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thanks, Monica.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

We can solve your linguistic mysteries, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org.