- Calling Names

[Jennifer Piersol]

Well, just had to throw in my two cents - er, probably four - and I 
have  to admit, I've thought about this enough to write a term paper 
about it in college for a linguistics class. ;)

I call my mother's sisters Auntie, and my father's sisters Aunt.

Now, why would I do that?

Is it because Auntie denotes more familiarity, and since I know my 
mother's sisters better, it's a form of affection?  

Probably not.  In *many* other languages, there are separate terms 
for the sisters of your mother and the sisters of your father.  In 
fact, in many of *those* languages, you're also expected to 
differentiate between the oldest and younger sisters, too.  So, for 
example, I would call my Auntie Norma (my mom's oldest sister) 
something like "Important-auntie Norma" and my Auntie Donna 
"Regular-auntie Donna". 

Pretty sad state of affairs for the younger siblings, huh?  Being 
relegated to the ranks of "regular". ;)

Anyway, my parents were 45 (father) and 37 (mom) when I was born, so 
all their friends were always introduced to me as Mr. or Mrs.  Not to 
mention the fact that they were both Navy (retired 3 years before I 
was born), which implies that they were a little more strict on the 
"respect" issue.  However, I didn't realize how much it had been 
drilled into my head... until 4 years ago.  They must have 
brainwashed me in my sleep.  A former teacher of mine from high 
school is teaching at the college where my husband works.  My husband 
calls him Joel, but I just *can't* call him anything but Mr. Wiens.  
I finally admitted it to him at the last division social, and he and 
everyone else at the table laughed... he asked me what I called him, 
and I said, "Usually, I just point and say 'him'."  Of course, that 
came with another laugh.  And I never really find it necessary to 
address him by either of his names to his face... so it's just an 
awkward situation that I feel will always be strange for me.

However, it's easier for me now to address older people (my mother's 
contemporaries, perhaps) by their first names if they're introduced 
to me by them.  I guess it's just a thing that gets more comfortable 
with age.  I, however, really appreciated the fact that my former 
(yay!) boss insisted that my students address me as Mrs. Piersol - I 
was younger than they were about 90% of the time, so it sort of made 
my students think about the fact that I had a specific mentor role to 
play for them.  Something they wouldn't have considered if they had 
met me on the street, simply because I am younger than they are, and 
so *cannot* know more than they do.  It made them realize that I 
might have something to actually teach them.  Not to say that they 
didn't teach me anything.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble - I'm probably stalling because I have 
to clean up the house for our book club tonight, and I hate cleaning.

Jen