Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 September 19

= September 19 =

Mom and Dad
How do homosexual couples' children call their parents? "Mom and Dad" seems to be standard in English, but it implies a father and mother, a heterosexual pairing. Would the kids just call their parents "my two Dads/Moms"? 107.92.121.218 (talk) 01:42, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Just like the variance with the words "mom" and "dad", I would expect there to be just as much variation with two parents of the same gender. "Mom and dad" could be "ma and pa", "mother and father", etc. Dismas |(talk) 01:46, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * That probably depends on the relationship between the two parents. In some cases one takes the role of father and the other the role of mother, so they might use those terms.  In other cases, there's less variation in the roles.  (In a related case, when a parent has a sex change operation, it seems most common for the kids to refer to them by the role of their former gender.) StuRat (talk) 01:55, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Citation needed for that last point. --174.88.134.156 (talk) 04:49, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I expected my sons to call me "dad" and unexpectedly, the older one usually calls me "pops" and the younger one sometimes follows. It is all subjective and family specific. Cullen328  Let's discuss it  07:03, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I agree, and I suspect the whole situation is too new for a standard practice to have been established. A generally agreed terminology doesn't yet exist. Somewhat similarly, men who can now marry each other in certain jurisdictions are often unsure how to refer to each other. "Husband" sounds wrong to some, but "partner" is too ambiguous. Going back to where same-sex couples have adopted children, I have heard some of them avoiding labels altogether by simply using their parents' first names. -- Alarics (talk) 09:20, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I have seen that, and also using titles along with names, such as "Mama Ann" and "Mama Sarah".  → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 18:44, 20 September 2015 (UTC)


 * It's a TV show so I don't know how informative it can be, but on The Fosters the kids call one "mom" and the other "mama". Adam Bishop (talk) 09:26, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I never majored in biology, but how can a child have "two parents of the same gender"? 92.1.55.84 (talk) 12:36, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * By adoption. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 13:45, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * 1) Adoption by both, where neither is the biological parent.


 * 2) Adoption by one, where the other is the biological parent, perhaps using a surrogate in the case of two men, or a sperm bank/donor in the case of two women.


 * 3) Biologically, they may have been opposite sexes when the child was conceived, but now one has switched their gender (which may or may not involves sex reassignment surgery).


 * 4) The child may be one of theirs from a previous heterosexual relationship. StuRat (talk) 15:29, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Pure anecdote of course, but in a same-gender couple I know, the young lad of from a previous heterosexual relationship called his birth mother "mum" and his birth mother's partner "Christine" (not her real name).--Shirt58 (talk) 10:33, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Why didn't he call her by her real name instead of just randomly making one up? KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 13:17, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Oh 大声で外に笑う, you young scamp, you!--Shirt58 (talk) 10:41, 22 September 2015 (UTC)


 * 爆笑 is the more general term for 'LOL', literally meaning 'explosive laughter'. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 11:32, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
 * In the of spirit the "Revised and enlarged edition of exercises in the Yokohama dialect":
 * Nun dartay tem may? Oh-my wa sew yoo kun-tun nar kunjee de mow yommay rah ray roo, dah zay!
 * --Shirt58 (talk) 12:04, 23 September 2015 (UTC)
 * That means nothing to me. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 11:23, 24 September 2015 (UTC)


 * This seems little different from dealing with two sets of grandparents. Mine were Mommom, Poppop, Grammom, and Grampop.  My niblings' grandparents are Grammom and Grampop and Nana and Poppop.  In no case did Nana get offended if she were addressed as grandmom.  It's an arbitrary convenience with no formally established convention to go on.  At this point the terminology is where US presdiential election reporting was before the advent of red states and blue states. μηδείς (talk) 18:14, 20 September 2015 (UTC)


 * There's a couple of children's books depicting such families, entitled Mommy, Mama and Me and Daddy, Papa and Me. I think it's fair to say that there's no standard practice whatever, even by comparison to heterosexual couples and their families. AlexTiefling (talk) 10:37, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Kids raised in ultra-progressive homes are sometimes taught to call their parents by their first names, which gets around the issue (unless they have the same first name). In my day, you would refer to your grandparents by their last names, and if you were in the same room with one set you would simply call them Grandpa and Grandma. As you and Medeis noted, there are no real rules - it's however a given family wants to do it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:45, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * FYI, the OP is currently under a block for block evasion. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:46, 21 September 2015 (UTC)


 * That's like being arrested for resisting arrest. StuRat (talk) 16:16, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
 * No, it's like being arrested for having escaped from jail. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Baseball Bugs (talk • contribs) 04:58, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

IPA superscripts
Has anyone seen $\langle\rangle$ for ? I could swear I saw it somewhere, but can't track it down.

Also, if anyone has seen any of these other letters used as diacritics, I would appreciate a ref:
 * Vowels:
 * Consonants: (also any implosive, click, or ext-IPA letter)
 * Any tone letter or prosodic mark (that isn't already a a superscript, that is)
 * Any obsolete or informal IPA letter, like

Thanks — kwami (talk) 20:16, 19 September 2015 (UTC)


 * You might find help via https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/contact.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 01:52, 20 September 2015 (UTC)


 * Good idea. Thanks. — kwami (talk) 17:45, 20 September 2015 (UTC)