All dialects: Addressing one's father, mother

poldo2014

poldo2014

Member
french
Dear all,

To me يا بابا and يا ماما both sound the most natural way to address my father and my mother.

But I was wondering would يا أبي / يا أمي work as well to address them? Or would these options sound too formal?

May I ask you which expressions you personally use?

Thank you in advance!
Sonia
 
    • For me I use ''بابا / أمي " , but without ''يا" which means ''O"
    Add to that my child calls me and his mother ''أبي/ ماما" and he calls his grandparents by "بابا / أمي"
     
    How is it in other dialects?

    Wiktionary tags بابا and ماما as childish. So would a 30-year old sound ridiculous addressing their parents by that? Or just the opposite, too formal addressing them by أبي and أمي?
     
    In Morocco for mother you find:
    أمي ("ummi", urban)
    مّي (traditionally rural and is pronounced "(u)mmui").
    الوالِدة

    And for father:
    بّا (traditionally rural)
    بابا (its urban variant I think)
    الوالد

    There are certainly others that I'm unaware of.

    One anecdote regarding Algerians, three days ago I was next to an Algerian man talking at phone to his father when I heard the former calling the latter "الشيباني" (which means "the old man", I wanted to burst into laughter :D ).
     
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    In the urban areas of al-Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia) one can hear for "Dad" "ya abooyah"
     
    Dymn said:
    How is it in other dialects?

    Wiktionary tags بابا and ماما as childish. So would a 30-year old sound ridiculous addressing their parents by that? Or just the opposite, too formal addressing them by أبي and أمي?
    Click to expand...
    I’m in my fifties, and call my parents بابا وماما, so do all my generation as far as I know. I rarely ever use anything else except when referring to them (not addressing them) while talking to someone not very close to me, in that case I’d usually use the formal way and say الوالد والوالدة.

    My father addressed my grandparents as يمّة ويابا, which is colloquial way of saying يا أمي ويا أبي in Palestinian Arabic. My mother just said بابا, but sometimes يابة.

    I suppose that for the most part, it’s becoming sort of old fashioned to use يمّة ويابا (Palestinian Arabic) or يوم ويابة (Iraqi Arabic), at least for middle class people. It was much more common some 40 years ago.
     
    djara said:
    Tunisian:
    Mother يامّي، يمّا، يا لُمّيمة
    Click to expand...
    How could I forgot these ones!! It's also valid regarding Morocco.

    There is also "بويا" in some areas but it's used when talking about one's father, not when adressing him.
     
    tracer2 said:
    In the urban areas of al-Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia) one can hear for "Dad" "ya abooyah"
    Click to expand...
    In the bedouin dialects speaking areas of al-Hejaz (and I suppose in neighbourings Najd and Jordan as well), you will hear "ummui" for "mum" :D.
     
    I would say ماما وبابا, but some of my contemporaries would say يمّة وبوية. I know someone who says يا أبتا, but he’s a little eccentric.
     
    After 4 years living in Cairo, my USA family addressed our father as PASHA (باشا). That's what we called him for the rest of his long life - never "Dad" or some such.

    (Our mother we called MEM SAHIB after 5 years sojourn in Pakistan).
     
    Mahaodeh said:
    I’m in my fifties, and call my parents بابا وماما, so do all my generation as far as I know.
    Click to expand...

    When I was a little boy my mother tried to get me to say ماما and بابا but I just couldn't do it. I found it infantilizing, but I guess modern middle class people like to infantilize their kids for some reason.

    In my generation ماما and بابا was (and still is) an upper and upper middle class thing, and mainly used by daughters.
     
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    WadiH said:
    When I was a little boy my mother tried to get me to say ماما and بابا but I just couldn't do it. I found it infantilizing, but I guess modern middle class people like to infantilize their kids for some reason.

    In my generation ماما and بابا was (and still is) an upper and upper middle class thing, and mainly used by daughters.
    Click to expand...
    This is also my impression through that بابا وماما are becoming more and more used among the middle class.
     
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