Quinn C
2017-11-25 16:11:07 UTC
I know this isn't new, but I don't remember details ...
Ran across this tweet the other day:
<https://twitter.com/junethomas/status/781796223808311296>
It says
| The British class system is never more obvious than in a card store.
and then shows a photo of various greeting cards addressed to
mother, mam, mum, mummy, respectively.
Not obvious at all to a foreigner. I would have thought that
there's some regional and individual variation in this as well. Is
it really, to this day, strongly class-based?
German has as many widely used words - Mutter, Mutti, Mama, Mami
-, but they carry no indication of class to me. I would never
seriously address my mother as "Mutter" in speaking, but I may
find it most appropriate in writing now that I'm an adult.
Ran across this tweet the other day:
<https://twitter.com/junethomas/status/781796223808311296>
It says
| The British class system is never more obvious than in a card store.
and then shows a photo of various greeting cards addressed to
mother, mam, mum, mummy, respectively.
Not obvious at all to a foreigner. I would have thought that
there's some regional and individual variation in this as well. Is
it really, to this day, strongly class-based?
German has as many widely used words - Mutter, Mutti, Mama, Mami
-, but they carry no indication of class to me. I would never
seriously address my mother as "Mutter" in speaking, but I may
find it most appropriate in writing now that I'm an adult.
--
The Eskimoes had fifty-two names for snow because it was
important to them, there ought to be as many for love.
-- Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (novel), p.106
The Eskimoes had fifty-two names for snow because it was
important to them, there ought to be as many for love.
-- Margaret Atwood, Surfacing (novel), p.106