Joelle from the Bronx, a singer in the Broadway production of The Lion King, wonders whether “Auntie” (pronounced AHN-tee) for an older woman who is not a blood relative is especially common in Black communities. That respectful non-relational use is well attested in African-American Vernacular English and in the American South, although ordinary family uses are widespread outside those communities. Cast members from South Africa use Auntie similarly, and older lexicographical data suggests the usage has been more common among African-American speakers, with an apparent age divide that may point to a fading custom. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Auntie as a Respectful Term for an Older Unrelated Woman”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, is this Martha?
Yes, who’s this?
Hi, this is Joelle, and I’m calling from the Bronx in New York City.
From the Bronx.
Hey, Joelle, how you doing?
Hi, Grant.
Well, I actually work at a large Broadway show, and it has a big cast and crew from lots of different places. And we have some differing opinions about their frequency of usage for a certain word in English, and it’s caused a lot of, like, debates. And I thought, you know, I know just who to call about this.
Great.
Well, the word is, depending on how you pronounce it, auntie or auntie. And it’s not the pronunciation that we have a problem with. The problem is the usage of it. Someone at work said something along the lines of, I’m going to Texas to visit my auntie. And this got us talking about it. And many of the cast members who are not black say that they have never heard this word used outside of the African-American community. And they assume that it was part of the African-American dialogue. And that surprised me because I’ve been black my whole life and I’ve never used this term in that way.
And then I brought up Auntie M and Auntie Mame and Auntie Anne’s pretzels. But everyone still seems to think that there’s something inherently African-American about the usage of the word auntie. So I guess my question is, is there any evidence that the word auntie is more prevalent in the black community than in other American communities?
This is a hard one. This is a good one, though. This is a really good one. And I love that you brought the evidence of white instances of auntie. I have one of my own, my younger sister who is white. All of her niece and her nephews call her auntie. And we’re not black or African-American at all. And they’re from Missouri, so they’re not particularly southern.
The reason it’s complicated is because there is an auntie usage in African-American vernacular English. But it’s the auntie that you use for an older woman who is not related to you but you respect. The way that you might, so let’s say your neighbor lady or someone down at the shops or somebody like that or somebody at church who you want to show her some respect. You might not call her Mrs. Smith. You might call her Auntie Smith or whatever her name is, Auntie Becca or something like that. Who knows?
But that’s very specific, though, to somebody that you’re not related to.
I think that’s exactly the way that they were using it, because they also use it at work to refer to each other or when they don’t know somebody. And I hadn’t encountered that. I’m from New England, and I didn’t really use that word in that way. And I wasn’t sure if that was something that is particularly African-American.
It’s Southern, too.
Yeah, it is Southern also. But as you know, not every African-American or black English speaker has all the same features in their dialect that the other ones do. We each have our own thing, right? We’ve got our own history, our own heritage. We come from a different part of the country. We have different sizes of family, and they’re from their own places, and they have their own habits. And all of these things matter. So there’s no reason that you necessarily would automatically know it.
Especially if you’re from New England.
Yeah, especially if you’re from New England. It is very heavily Southern.
Yeah.
You know, the thing is, I think what makes it complicated in my mind, you guys, is I’m not 100% sure that this is a tradition that isn’t waning so fast that we’re talking about a relic almost.
Yeah, because it could be an age difference. But what also is interesting is there’s a lot of, the reason why I use the word black, not African-American, is there’s a lot of South Africans in the show that I’m in, and they use that word in that way as well.
The same way.
Yeah.
Oh, that’s really interesting. You know, there’s a book of Caribbean English that I read quite a while back that had something along the lines of, I’m going to get this wrong, but the theory was that there were some usages in Caribbean English that can be directly traced to some of the terms of respect used in some of the African languages spoken by the people who came across as part of the slave trade to work in the sugar plantations. And I don’t know how sound their theory was, but for what it was worth, that was their theory.
Joelle, how old are the folks in the cast? How old are the folks who are having these conversations?
There seems to be an age divide because many of the people who are, you know, it’s a big show. So some people are in, the people who are using that word in that way tend to be 40s and up, I would say.
Interesting.
And with the younger people sort of, we are sort of catching on to the lingo. So it’s almost become, you know, when you work in a group of people who work together eight shows a week, you develop your own little vocabulary.
Oh, sure.
It’s almost become part of our vocabulary at our job.
Oh, that’s so cool.
That’s cool. What’s your role, by the way? If I can change the subject for a second. What do you do, Joel?
Oh, I’m a singer in The Lion King.
Oh.
How about that?
Oh, wow. That’s fantastic. This is one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time.
Yeah, but because of the nature of the show, there’s people from South Africa in the show. We have many Spanish speakers, and it’s a multi-ethnic and multicultural show.
Oh, sounds like a great place to be. People with European heritage, and so it’s a big, big old mishmash.
Well, I will tell you that the data that have been collected by lexicographers and linguists over the decades show that it is more common in the African-American community. And I don’t know if you can hear the giant asterisk in my voice. That asterisk is that the data is old. And so the data isn’t from this decade even. It’s from like many decades ago. So at one time it was true, and I don’t know whether or not it’s true now. I would love to send a linguist backstage to hang out with the cast. I mean, what a rich mix of language.
Well, Joelle, there’s the best answer for you. But I do appreciate you bringing a lot of information to be here. I love that it seems to be age-graded. That’s the term that we use, that it tends to be in the older folks and not the younger folks. That may be a really strong indicator that it’s on its way out as a custom.
Oh, it’s a shame to see it go.
Well, you can do it, though, but you guys have the power to bring it back and make it real, you know, spread it out to your other communities. The next show that you do, teach them.
I will. I will definitely.
Take care and break a leg, all right?
Thank you so much for calling.
Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much.
Bye-bye.
All right. Bye-bye.
Bye.
Well, if you use Auntie in your house, we’d love to hear about it. Help us add to our data set to figure out if this is a thing that’s on the way out. 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
