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Show ARE JUST "PA" AND "MA" NOW Modern Children Lack Oldtime Dignified Digni-fied Titles for Their Parents, Declare a London Writer. When I was a snnill boy, forty years ago, children tilmoat "without exception addressed their parents as "pnpa" and "uiurnnia." When a boy grew older and went to school he frequently took to aylng "sir" to his father, though, behind be-hind ills back, he usually referred to him as "puter" or "the governor." At the same time he gave up saying "niamina," which he considered childish, child-ish, and took to railing his mother "mother," or sometimes "mater." It wns about twenty years ago thai the abbreviations "pa" and "ma" began to be generally used. They came from America, where they had already been in use for many years. Some children used "daddy" Instead of "papa," and after a time "papa" I went out altogether, and was replaced by "dad" with those of older growth. Today "dad" Is ahuo universal. Even the little shaver of four or five calls his father "dad." As for "mama," it Is as obsolete as "papa," and mater-famtllas mater-famtllas Is now known universally as j "mum." The only part of the kingdom in which these abbreviations have not found favor Is Scotland, where the more formal "father" and "mother" are still Insisted upon. London Answers. |