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In today's discussion of what the kids will call their two mothers, someone thought Baba meant papa or dad. I thought that in Russian or another Slavic language, Baba means grandma, or at least little old lady. I think there's a bunch of stories about Baba Yaga, a witch who lives in a cottage with chicken legs-a mobile home? Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar.
That's true about "baba" being a name for grandma or little old lady, but it's not always the same in every country. In some languages in India, “baba†means “father.†Here's a bit of a comparison.
Also, the last paragraph on page 227 of this book explains something well-known to linguists: “It has been recognized for centuries that nursery formations, so-called Lallwörter (the mama-papa-dada-caca sort of words), should be avoided in proposals of linguistic affinity, since they exhibit a high degree of similarity in languages throughout the world that is not due to common ancestry.â€
My son, by the way, goes to a daycare here in New York City owned and run by two Byelorussian woman, a mother and daughter. For the first couple of months my son often played with the daughter's two boys, so he got in the habit of calling their grandmother "baba," too. 🙂
I also agree that, if you are lucky, your child will likely make his or her own choice.
I have the privilege of being a stepparent. When my wife and I married, the boys were old enough to make their own decision about how to call me. At one specific point just prior to our wedding, I did explicitly give the boys the permission to make their own choices -- till then I had been "Glenn." Ultimately, they never really settled on just one choice. I asked permission to refer to them as my sons, which I still do, unless context demands greater clarity.
Over the years, I've enjoyed a rich experience of nuance, from their calling me Glenn (with tenderness ranging to both extremes), through the collective “my parents,†to the traditional “dad.â€
Now that the boys have their own children, the nuance continues. When the oldest grandson was born, I certainly did not want to usurp the grandfather position from the boys' biological father. I was unsure what our son and his wife would choose. As it turns out, they were heading for “grandpa.†But, while my grandson was still in the babbling stage, I was tending him in the next room, and making a joke by loudly coaching him to say “grandpa†as his first word.
He popped out with something sounding like “oom-pa†and I jokingly declared victory that his first word was “grandpa.â€
Now, as a five-year-old, while “grandpa†occasionally slips out, “oompa†is my primary label to all -- him, his younger brother, and younger cousin. I think it is a keeper.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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