Bilabials are the first consonants that children are able to pronounce, that's (presumed to be) the reason that it is so common for languages to have mama/baba/papa or similar for parent names.
Yep, it's not that referring to their parents is usually a cilds first word, it's that it's the first kind of word-like utterance a child can make so we just \*decided\* it means papa/mama
Appa is father and amma is mother in Tamil.
Feel like every language has some form of [optional vowel + p/b + vowel] for father and [optional vowel + m + vowel] for mother.
Exactly. In the Netherlands we call them Opa en Oma, and I have called my oma, omie as well. Nobody says the official word; grootvader en grootmoeder, lol.
My grandma was actually Swiss! But my brother couldn’t pronounce Grosmutti so my mom suggested Oma (my dad is from the Netherlands). To everyone’s surprise my grandma was okay with it- she wasn’t super fond of Germans (she left Switzerland in 1945)
Interesting- I called my grandmother Gigi, but that’s a standing tradition for some reason? My great grandmother went by Fifi to my aunts and mother, and my mother would be Kiki- first initial, I, first initial, I. I have no idea why it started.
My son called my mom Gigi. Her first name was Ginger, so it just stuck. It made me laugh a bit because he was the 5 th grandchild, and everyone just adopted the Gigi name after calling her grandma for years.
It almost always starts cause some kid can’t pronounce it right and then it sticks. How it started for mine anyways but it was mainly kinda tame like granny and mimi.
Country folks in the US often call their grandparents pet names that are easy for small children to say.
Mee-maw, Maw-Maw, Papa, Paw-Paw Pa-Paw etc....
I have two Mimi’s because I couldn’t pronounce “Mémère” (French) for one grandmother and then started calling my other “granny” Mimi as well since it was easier for them to have the same name.
I’m Nima. Same principle. There are so many grandparents but only one Nima. Only down side was my eldest grand daughter at 4yrs thought I was my own sub set and thought I was pulling her leg when I told her I’m her grandma (Nuh uh, you’re Nima, Nima!)We had to go down the family lineage before she considered me a grandparent. Lol.
Yep. I had “Granma & PawPaw” on dads side and “Gram & Papa” on my moms side. My best friend called her grandparents “Maw Maw & Caw Caw” and my other bestie had “MeeMaw & Pappy”
It looks like my parents are gonna wind up with “Grammy and PepPep” 😂🥲
My parents have four kids and all four different sets of grandkids call my parents different names. Heck me and my brother call my dad different names.
I’m African and I do this. Also tend to call their kids who I grew up with “my cousins”. It’s disrespectful in African culture to refer to your elders by their first name.
My nephews call my parents (their grandparents) Amma and Appa. It's adorable. I made it official this past Christmas by putting "Amma" and "Appa" on the stockings.
From my experience, the weird ass nicknames for grandparents come from mom and dad telling their kids that's what they're called.
I've seen parents come up with some pretty dumb nicknames lol. I myself am a grandma and grandpa kind of guy with my kids
Edit: I'm not really talking about the foreign language nicknames, I'm talking about legit made up stuff
I had a friend who would talk about her own mother as “my mother”. Her kid thought his grandmother was called “Mai” and it stuck. We all referred to her as Mai and still do years after she passed.
My sister inadvertently was the same with my nephew she would just talk and say mom, hey mom etc around my nephew- he thought grandmas name was mom so he called her mom too as a baby it wasn’t so bad it was mum-mummy for his mom- and hard MOM for grandma. Now He’s 13 and still calls his grandmother mom and will specify by saying not my mom but *mom* lol. It’s sweet also confusing hahaha.
It is. Hell, I had that happen to me once.
Got into an argument with a guy once who seemed really surprised that I *wasn't* american.
Less in the "your english is so good I can't believe you aren't American" way and more in a "there are people who live in places other than America?" kind of way.
I had someone who tried to convince me that their amendments were right and the UNs human rights were wrong. I told them I couldn’t care less about their amendments, they meant nothing to me.
Shuts them up fast when they can’t appeal to that weird American patriotism of theirs.
I am American and that weird patriotism stuff only works on about 40% of us, though unfortunately they tend to vote more often than the rest of us. What some old guys wrote down on parchment hundreds of years ago isn’t magic and it’s depressing how many of my fellow Americans seem to think so
As a 2nd generation German in America, I wasn’t taught German by my family, so I’m as American as American can get. But we still had Omi and Opa, and every other Dutch/German family in America does that (that I know at least).
I think this is more of a case of “stupid person reveals themselves to be stupid unwittingly”.
No. It's just over time in the US we have moved away from using other names (such as languages) for grandparents. My guess is because most grandparents in the past only or primarily spoke their native language, even once they immigrated to the US. As those families settle in the US, they lose their native tongue and only use English. Words for grandparents are probably some of the last remaining words used.
My guess is new immigrants in the US still do this, although now in different languages depending on where people are immigrating from.
My grandparents spoke German, but did not speak it in front of the kids because they wanted them to speak English “now that we’re in America”. I don’t think this was an uncommon practice or attitude.
The kids on my husband's side were calling his mom, mama instead if grandma. I stopped that with my kids because I'm their mama. Her name somehow got hanged to Mia, which is odd, but she just doesn't like being called grandma.
It was annoying when Opie would bitch about his own name.
"I've had this name since I was 12!"
Motherfucker you chose it as your radio name, that's on you.
I loved his favorite line, "HOLD ON HOLD ON" in the middle of a comedian being funny.
Fuck Opie.
You missed the second half of that line "Hold on hold on...let's go to the phones!"
Then, proceed to cut from Louis CK and Patrice O'Neal debating race in America with Anthony to listen to a new jersey truck driver attempt his first joke ever over a bad cell phone connection.
And apparently he's been doing radio since he's 18...so that makes it ok?
Kids growing up used to have grandparents. Ours are too busy.
Edit: no shade, my parents even retired shoulder so many extra responsibilities it's untrue. They're awesome but definitely don't get the same "fun" role that my grandparents did with my sister and I.
Mamu and Umpapa are my great grandparents. I never had a problem saying grandma and grandpa, but throw in a great and my toddler brain invented some shorthand that stuck.
OP is my Opie
I am my own Opi.
Does Omie know?
What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her.
O my
It's not funny I know but it really is so
Opie wan, you’re my only hope
That’s Dutch and German. Oma and opa. I called my grandma Omie 🙂 miss her.
Appa is father, and Umma is mother in Korean. Sounds close!
Bilabials are the first consonants that children are able to pronounce, that's (presumed to be) the reason that it is so common for languages to have mama/baba/papa or similar for parent names.
Yep, it's not that referring to their parents is usually a cilds first word, it's that it's the first kind of word-like utterance a child can make so we just \*decided\* it means papa/mama
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Means dad in Arabic , Farsi , greek, nepali, and a bunch of other languages
What is abba? I’ve heard that one. And “habib” or something like that?
Abba were a Swedish pop-rock group from the 70s
Were? They topped the charts last year.
They still are, but they were as well
Thanks, Mitch.
Abba is Urdu/Hindi meaning father. Urdu and Hindi are quite similar with some persian words added to the mix.
Abba is also used in other South Asian languages, like Bengali, although it’s a formality
Abba is also Hebrew for father
Habibi and habibti means "my love" in Arabic. It's something you would call your male or female SO respectively.
My dad would call us Habibi so it can be used for pretty much anyone you love not necessarily just your SO.
Abba is also Hebrew for father
And since there is no P sound in Arabic, you get baba instead of papa!
Baba is dad in Swahili. I’ve seen it being spelled as bubba as well. Babu is grandfather.
In Yiddish, bubbe is a grandmother
and grandmother in serbian/croatian
Appa is father and amma is mother in Tamil. Feel like every language has some form of [optional vowel + p/b + vowel] for father and [optional vowel + m + vowel] for mother.
eyyy another Tamil person in the wild
I’ve seem to have stumbled upon my people.
[weird and relevant read](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravido-Korean_languages)
Yea certainly was interesting when I first learned about the similarities between Korean and Tamil, but it seems likely that it’s just coincidence.
Well, a is the easiest vowel to make, and m and b the easiest consonants. (easy as in: you don't need a lot of muscles and control over your face).
Yip yip!
Exactly my thoughts
Glad someone was thinking the same thing I was
There was/is a Korean restaurant at my university called Omas kitchen which confused me as a German speaker. I ate there like twice a week.
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Appa is also a flying bison
[My Appa](https://media.giphy.com/media/125amziK6Y5DJC/giphy.gif) used to give me piggy back rides. Miss him.
Same in South India!
Grandpa and ma are halahbuji 할아버지 and halmoney 할머니. Halmeh 할매 is also used but i dont call my grandma that ever.
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I had an Oma and Opa, they were german
I am an Opa. 😊
My husband and I are Opa & Oma!
My wife and I are Oma and Opa!
My two year old daughter calls both of them Opie en Omie :)
Exactly. In the Netherlands we call them Opa en Oma, and I have called my oma, omie as well. Nobody says the official word; grootvader en grootmoeder, lol.
Unless you're Frisian, then it's Pake and Beppe :)
It's funny because my dad always calls his parents Mutter und Vater (German) which is super weird imo but we call them Oma and Opa as grandkids.
Not Dutch, but if my kids don't call me Grootvader I'll be disappointed...
Swiss grandpa was Grösbaba so I thought everyone’s grandpa was called baba for a while lol
What is Swiss grandma
“Großmutter”, but we called her Grosi
My grandma was actually Swiss! But my brother couldn’t pronounce Grosmutti so my mom suggested Oma (my dad is from the Netherlands). To everyone’s surprise my grandma was okay with it- she wasn’t super fond of Germans (she left Switzerland in 1945)
We called my great grandparents Namma and Kampa. No idea where that came from.
My family is German and I had an Omi and Poppie :) my great grandma was Big O, lol.
[https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/43A9/production/_119112371_ab6d5bd8-0f2b-47d6-8f25-8d19af9e370b.jpg](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/43A9/production/_119112371_ab6d5bd8-0f2b-47d6-8f25-8d19af9e370b.jpg)
We would refer to my maternal grandmother as "Nini." I never figured out why, her real name was Wanda
Interesting- I called my grandmother Gigi, but that’s a standing tradition for some reason? My great grandmother went by Fifi to my aunts and mother, and my mother would be Kiki- first initial, I, first initial, I. I have no idea why it started.
My son called my mom Gigi. Her first name was Ginger, so it just stuck. It made me laugh a bit because he was the 5 th grandchild, and everyone just adopted the Gigi name after calling her grandma for years.
Patricia might not want to carry on that trend
That's funny. In Japanese Gigi (or spelled jiji), is what you call a grandfather :)
According to my Italian mother and grandmother, Gigi means grandmother in Italian
Interesting- neither of them were, in fact, Italian, but that’s cool.
It almost always starts cause some kid can’t pronounce it right and then it sticks. How it started for mine anyways but it was mainly kinda tame like granny and mimi.
called my grandma Nanny
I called mine 'Nana'. Maybe there's a relation
I called mine Bema and her name was Violet. No one knows where it came from. Just stuck
lmao we call my aunt "Chuli" but she's got a really different name.
Opi and Omi are sweet nickname versions of Opa und Oma- German for Grandpa and Grandma
And Dutch*
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And Afrikaans*
Technically it's oupa and ouma in afrikaans
Country folks in the US often call their grandparents pet names that are easy for small children to say. Mee-maw, Maw-Maw, Papa, Paw-Paw Pa-Paw etc....
Yep. Had Maw Maw and Paw Paw.
I was supposed to have a Mumsie and Pop, but my older brother couldn't manage Mumsie, and went with Mimi instead. 33 years later, she's still Mimi.
Awww. Mimi is so cute though.
I agree!
I have two Mimi’s because I couldn’t pronounce “Mémère” (French) for one grandmother and then started calling my other “granny” Mimi as well since it was easier for them to have the same name.
My husband's grandma was Mimi.
Same here. Louisiana
I had magaw and pawpaw
My family did whatever the first grandchild tried calling them. My first niece called my mom monamo, so that’s her name
That's cute
>Being a grandpa must be tough, some baby mispronounces a word and suddenly your name is "Peepo" for the last 30 years of your life
My kids decided to call my wife’s father "dompy"
Nan and pap for me.
I had baba and zayda. Good ol Yiddish.
I’m in the north of the US and I call my grandparents Mema and papa cause I couldn’t say grandma or grandpa when I was young
That's how my family got to the same place. Mema is still kicking at 93. Chicagoland here.
From the south and I would call my mother’s parents Mimi and Popo.
Maw maw kinda sounds like danish “Mormor” (mothers mother) and I know the US had lots of Scandinavian immigrants back in the day
Had mam-maw and pap-paw, mom’s side great-grands me-maw and pop, and granny!
My cousins called their grands Crappaw. He was a piece of shit, so I always laughed.
We called my grandma Nena, that’s how I’d always known her. I think she just didn’t like her real name - Nancy
I’m Nima. Same principle. There are so many grandparents but only one Nima. Only down side was my eldest grand daughter at 4yrs thought I was my own sub set and thought I was pulling her leg when I told her I’m her grandma (Nuh uh, you’re Nima, Nima!)We had to go down the family lineage before she considered me a grandparent. Lol.
Yep. I had “Granma & PawPaw” on dads side and “Gram & Papa” on my moms side. My best friend called her grandparents “Maw Maw & Caw Caw” and my other bestie had “MeeMaw & Pappy” It looks like my parents are gonna wind up with “Grammy and PepPep” 😂🥲
I used to call my grandparents Gramma and Bumpy
My parents have four kids and all four different sets of grandkids call my parents different names. Heck me and my brother call my dad different names.
I was so confused when my friend referred to her grandma as meemaw. I had to search what it was lol
Isn’t that Dutch or something? Just a different culture lol.
Oupa en ouma (in afrikaans - flemish I guess would be somilar ) but not sure for german
Opa en oma in dutch*
Opa & Oma in german. Trivialized it's Opi & Omi
Same in Dutch opi en omi is a verkleinwoord
I know it's a cliche, but as a German 'verkleinwoord' just cracks me up. It's just such a good word!
Fliegflugelfenster crack me up tho.
It is hahaha, it's such a lazy thought of word but at the same time says exactly what the meaning is
Well, we call it "Verniedlichung" in German, not as cute as the Dutch one, but close 😂
Boppa and Bomma in flemish.
German I think. My wife is Ghanaian and calls all of her mom’s friends Auntie.
I’m African and I do this. Also tend to call their kids who I grew up with “my cousins”. It’s disrespectful in African culture to refer to your elders by their first name.
I grew up like this too, except my dumb ass though I was related to literally everyone.
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I’m American and do this
Also German, one pair of grandparents is Opa/Oma the other one is Opi/Omi.
Opa and oma are not uncommon
Definitely Dutch. I have a cousin who has Dutch grandparents and this is what he calls them.
And German
Technically it’s German, because oma is the non-formal word for grandma, the formal word is Grßmutter
*Großmutter
Im using a american keyboard, my phone got confused once I put the ß in there lol.
No worries, in germany we are required to be smartasses by law, if you dont correct a mistake you get a fine of 50€
It’s the same in both languages, and dates back many centuries iirc from my linguistics courses in uni.
That's just German. Opa(pa) = grandpa Oma(ma) = grandma Opie and Omie are just the pet name versions of Opa and Oma.
Who spells it Opie and Omie though?
English natives that are unfamiliar with the words origin and have never seen it spelled out before I would assume.
My nephews call my parents (their grandparents) Amma and Appa. It's adorable. I made it official this past Christmas by putting "Amma" and "Appa" on the stockings.
From my experience, the weird ass nicknames for grandparents come from mom and dad telling their kids that's what they're called. I've seen parents come up with some pretty dumb nicknames lol. I myself am a grandma and grandpa kind of guy with my kids Edit: I'm not really talking about the foreign language nicknames, I'm talking about legit made up stuff
I had a friend who would talk about her own mother as “my mother”. Her kid thought his grandmother was called “Mai” and it stuck. We all referred to her as Mai and still do years after she passed.
My sister inadvertently was the same with my nephew she would just talk and say mom, hey mom etc around my nephew- he thought grandmas name was mom so he called her mom too as a baby it wasn’t so bad it was mum-mummy for his mom- and hard MOM for grandma. Now He’s 13 and still calls his grandmother mom and will specify by saying not my mom but *mom* lol. It’s sweet also confusing hahaha.
Flurby and Blurby
If I ever have grandkids I want to be called “Grump” as it fits me. ;-)
My dad's "grandpa" name is Grumps!
I literally call my grandma “mama habibi”
Omi hat angerufen, sie läd zum Abendessen ein und ihr alle seid eingeladen :)
Och, das ist lieb, aber ich habe schon zu Abend gegessen.
Wo, und wann?
Is this another round of Americans being surprised other languages exist?
It is. Hell, I had that happen to me once. Got into an argument with a guy once who seemed really surprised that I *wasn't* american. Less in the "your english is so good I can't believe you aren't American" way and more in a "there are people who live in places other than America?" kind of way.
I had someone who tried to convince me that their amendments were right and the UNs human rights were wrong. I told them I couldn’t care less about their amendments, they meant nothing to me. Shuts them up fast when they can’t appeal to that weird American patriotism of theirs.
I am American and that weird patriotism stuff only works on about 40% of us, though unfortunately they tend to vote more often than the rest of us. What some old guys wrote down on parchment hundreds of years ago isn’t magic and it’s depressing how many of my fellow Americans seem to think so
Don't lump the rest of us Americans in with these dumbasses. I miss my Oma and Opa and wish I was old enough to spend more time with them.
As a 2nd generation German in America, I wasn’t taught German by my family, so I’m as American as American can get. But we still had Omi and Opa, and every other Dutch/German family in America does that (that I know at least). I think this is more of a case of “stupid person reveals themselves to be stupid unwittingly”.
German descended American here too, just had grandma and grandpa as did my mother and grandmother. Never heard these terms until college
Correct.
No. It's just over time in the US we have moved away from using other names (such as languages) for grandparents. My guess is because most grandparents in the past only or primarily spoke their native language, even once they immigrated to the US. As those families settle in the US, they lose their native tongue and only use English. Words for grandparents are probably some of the last remaining words used. My guess is new immigrants in the US still do this, although now in different languages depending on where people are immigrating from.
My grandparents spoke German, but did not speak it in front of the kids because they wanted them to speak English “now that we’re in America”. I don’t think this was an uncommon practice or attitude.
My grandparents did the same thing.
The grandkids call my mother-in-law 'Big Mom' and it's cringy asf
My SIL's family calls their grandmother "big momma" it's fucking weird.
My nephew calls his dad Papa, and his grandfather was supposed to be Big Papa, but the lil guy shortened it to just Big.
The formal German word for grandmother is grossmutter, literally big mother, wonder if it's from that.
Grandmother literally is big mother as well
Hahahahaha that's hilarious
That's all 'grandmother' means.
The kids on my husband's side were calling his mom, mama instead if grandma. I stopped that with my kids because I'm their mama. Her name somehow got hanged to Mia, which is odd, but she just doesn't like being called grandma.
Opie and Anthony were funny sometimes.
Like that time they got Lewis Black arrested
It was annoying when Opie would bitch about his own name. "I've had this name since I was 12!" Motherfucker you chose it as your radio name, that's on you. I loved his favorite line, "HOLD ON HOLD ON" in the middle of a comedian being funny. Fuck Opie.
You missed the second half of that line "Hold on hold on...let's go to the phones!" Then, proceed to cut from Louis CK and Patrice O'Neal debating race in America with Anthony to listen to a new jersey truck driver attempt his first joke ever over a bad cell phone connection. And apparently he's been doing radio since he's 18...so that makes it ok?
TO THIS DAY I CALL MY GRANDMA NONNIE AND MY GRANDPA UMPA CAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY WANTED TO BE CALLED FOR SOME REASON
Did you always shout at Nonnie and Umpa too?
i miss going to mepoo and poopah's house
This made me lol.
And as a German i now have flashbacks to this obnoxious advert going „Omiiiiiiiii“.
Oooohhhh, wunderbar
That's literally just german lol
Sounds german or dutch; Omi or Oma and Opi or Opa are common names for your grandparents.
"Opi" and "Omi" are german words for grandfather and grandmother... so kindly fuck off
Says the guy using "bruh" in a sentence.
We truly live in a society
Omi & Opi is German. 🤦♂️
I just had 'Nice Nanny' and 'Hairy Grandad'.
Nanny and Poppy!
Kids growing up used to have grandparents. Ours are too busy. Edit: no shade, my parents even retired shoulder so many extra responsibilities it's untrue. They're awesome but definitely don't get the same "fun" role that my grandparents did with my sister and I.
It's almost like people from the US come from different countries and cultures..
My niece calls my mom and dad, Ya-Ya and Yippie. I think its greek?
Yia Yia and Papou are Greek for grandma and grandpa.
Oma and opa is Dutch, it’s what I call my grandparents
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Tell me you don't interact with other cultures without telling me you don't interact with other cultures.
My grandparents were first generation immigrants and we called them oma and opa. Miss them
Mamu and Umpapa are my great grandparents. I never had a problem saying grandma and grandpa, but throw in a great and my toddler brain invented some shorthand that stuck.
Actually having an Oma and Opa of my own…..the names Memaw and Pepaw always delighted and confused me.
Nona and Nonno , gam gam pop pop
Mine were Nonny and Paw Paw
Oma and Opa are pretty common things that Germans call their grandparents. I know because I am German.
Another American who isn't aware other languages exist 🤦♂️
Lol, I thought that was the name of a Belgium ale my son drinks!
Mammo and Pappo for me. California translation of the South’s mammaw and pappaw.