Re: Re: Grandmother v granmother

From: David Cake <dave_at_...>
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:12:24 +0800

At 4:46 PM -0700 29/6/06, Greg Stafford wrote:
> >> I am curious about how many people on this list actually use the
>>> word Grandmother to refer to the mother of their father or mother.
>>
>>
>> Wikipedia asserts that informal terms predominate:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother
>
>And not surprisingly, the sampling here agres that few people use
>Grandmother as a term of address.
>
>So, I wonder, why the flurry of efforts to find a different term?

        speaking only for myself (and I don't think I particularly flurried), its a confusion in formal address and description, not in intimate family setting. When an Esrolian says to another 'I have to do this thing for my Grandmother', it remains ambiguous.

        And I was certainly struck by the way in which an English word that already has the exact meaning needed (Matriarch) was consciously avoided in favour of an ambiguous term. Just struck me as odd. Bu no means the first time its happened in Glorantha, but this time seemed peculiarly forced to me.

	Cheers
		David