Do(es) your language(s) allow for older people to call younger people "mommy" or "daddy" "my uncle" etc ?

Hi! In Turkish people often call little kids names like "my mom" or "my dad" based on their relationship to them, kind of like how some people in English might call their daughter "mamma" or I think even I hear people do this with their dogs.

It's cute in Turkish, like a mom could tell her son or daughter "yapma anneciğim" (don't do that "my little mamma") or as an older sister I could "sen neredesin, ablacığım?" (where are you my dear big sister?) to my little brother or sister.

I wonder if your language or languages that you know , and if so how? I am writing a term paper on this and I have a lot of data from a ton of languages but I would love to hear personal stories! I wont put any of this in the paper but am just curious for future research.

If you have the time, some big things I am wondering are:

Do you match the gender to the speaker or the person you are talking to? (for example, could a dad call his daughter "my daddy" or would he change it to be "my mommy")

Can you only use this with one or two terms, like "mamma" in English, or many terms, like "my uncle," "my sister" "my dad" in Turkish?

Could people use terms that aren't familial with this, like saying "my teacher" or "my imam?"

is it used to be loving, concerned, show authority?

do you have to use something like "my" or "my little" (a possessive or a diminutive) in order to use it?

Lastly how do you feel about this? obviously I love it and think it's cute, but I know some people feel like it is weird.

Thanks so much, I'm super curious to hear more!

Posted May 5, 2025, 12:34 AM UTC

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