in the 19th century, how did children refer to both their parents in
England, Switzerland and the US?  Da, Pa, Pop, Father, etc? Ma, Mom,
Momma, Mother, etc?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 29 Aug 2005 10:33 PDT

I am interested in researching your question.  However, I believe that
to research and answer it well, your question will require more time
and effort than the average amount of time and effort associated with
this price.  Here is a link to guidelines about pricing your question:

http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html.

If you both raise your price and also post a clarification here, the
system will notify me and I will take another look at your question.

Incidentally, would it be sufficient to answer this question with
information on any location in these three countries from any part of
the 19th century?  Or do you need information throughout the countries
and throughout the century?  These factors might influence your
decision on a price for the question, or on whether to split the
question into more than question posted separately.

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Clarification of Question by serenityf-ga on 29 Aug 2005 11:30 PDT

I raised the price by $5 - to $7 total.

I don't need specific answers as to locations, various times in the
19th century, etc.  A general idea would be fine.  Figure a family
coming from the more prosperous places in Switzerland, UK, and the US
in the middle of the 19th century.

Please let me know if this is enough to work from.

Thanks!!!

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Clarification of Question by serenityf-ga on 29 Aug 2005 18:25 PDT

Doesn't matter.  If you know all three, then great!  If not, then
whatever you can  provide would be great too!

Thanks!

French, German or Italian speaking Swiss children?  
Rätoromanisch (Switzerland's 4th language) is probably not of interest.

Doesn't matter.  If you know all three, then great!  If not, then
whatever you can  provide would be great too!

Thanks!

Hi GA-community,
This sounds like a question to be answered from some
linguistic-sociological sources, but 19th century literature might be
an equally valid source:  maybe Buddenbrooks, Heidi, Fontane's books
for German; whatever appropriate for French, English, American
examples.  (At the moment, I have a mental block on possible authors 
- or just don't know any.)
Myoarin

Another clarification needed would be register and age of the children.

Informal speech between a parent and a five year old is considerably
different than a dinner party between a 15 year old and his parents
with guests present. In addition, most of the sources for this type of
information would be letters. Letters are written in a completly
different register than common speech. For example, if you read
letters from civil war soldiers back to their parents, they are almost
always started with:
Dear Mother and Father
OR
Dear Mother and Family
OR
Dear Family

It is hard to say if they would use the same terms of address when NOT
writing a letter

--SENATUS