mama, papa: shifting etymologies
Just making sure I park this observation somewhere in public.
Image credit: Unseen Japan
The Chinuk Wawa words mama & papa — guess what they mean — are, as the Grand Ronde Tribes 2012 dictionary wisely etymologizes, from Métis/Canadian French. This, to me, is because the language took the shape we know in households where the dads almost all spoke French.
They’re almost 100% sure to have had another etymology added, though: local English. English nudged French aside as the most commonly heard Indo-European language in Chinook Jargon-speaking areas by about 1850.
So you might say that the Métis words for your parents lost out to the Settler ones.
Thought I’d expressed this before in print, but then again I’m just full of thoughts like that! 🤩
