my brother and I used to call both our grandfathers "Taid", whereas, our grandmothers were known as "Nain" and "Nana". No idea why - perhaps the men were used to responding to all names under the sun - they just knw instinctively when they were being spoken to. Here in Germany, my now 3 year old daughter doesn't have that problem - my parents are now Nain and Taid, and my wifes are Oma and Opa. Referring to the language aspect - it is important to me that my daughter speaks Welsh, it is important for her that she also learns English, and with growing up in Germany, and having a German mother, it is also important to speak German. So she is growing up with all 3. Granted she took a bit longer to start speaking than her cousin who is 2 days older, but she did have to process 3 languages instead of just the 1. Now she understands all 3 and if I tell her something in Welsh, she turns round and repeats it word for word in German to her Oma and Opa. I can only concur with Brian that children know instinctively which language to use with whom. Dewi -------- Original-Nachricht -------- Datum: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 07:42:08 -0400 Von: Brian Davies <bedavies@bellsouth.net> An: monmouthshire@rootsweb.com Betreff: Re: [MON] Blaenavon > Other events in my life have kept me from paying much attention to this > thread - but -the most commonly used affectionate term for 'grandfather' > in south Wales is/was (in my experience) Bamp or Bampa. I always used > the former term in Newport and our daughters in Aberystwyth the latter > term for my wife's father from Dowlais. With a grand daughter imminent > in London this is, as they say, 'under active consideration' here in > Dixie land. > > Learning languages early? It is common experience that young children > seem to know instinctively which language is which, certainly in Wales. > > Brian Davies > > Emeritus Professor B E Davies PhD, C. Chem, FRSC > 107 Teeside Drive > Anderson SC 29625-6937 USA > tel: (864) 646-7876 > > > > -- "Feel free" - 10 GB Mailbox, 100 FreeSMS/Monat ... Jetzt GMX TopMail testen: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/topmail