Re: Forms of personal address

From: MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM

> markjreed@MAIL.COM writes:
> > [re: "Mr/Miss Firstname"\
> > >  I think that must be a Southern thing.
> I'm not sure it's just Southern thing.  Unless that includes northern
> Kentucky.  Some of the places I've worked at recently some of the women, at
> least,
> called each other Miss FirstName (regardless of marital status).  It always
> sounded quaint to me.
To this Yankee ear, Mr. [First Name], used in earnest, sounds like a relic of
slavery days: "Yaz'm, Mister (Massah) Douglas." Up north (and I presumptuously
assume, nationally), it is still used in kiddie speak to anthropomorphise
things: to wit, just heard on an episode of "Dharma & Greg" something to the
effect of "If we're going to drink Mr. Grape Juice, let's take off Mr. Silk
Tie." It also makes certain kiddie show characters more familiar (similar
motivation, me thinks): "Mr. Greenjeans" of _Captain Kangaroo_ and "Mr. Wizard"
(TV shows of bygone Americana -- apologies to our more international members).

Miss [First Name] has a slightly different trajectory. "Yaz'm, Miss Audra."
hearkens back to slave days, surely. But there's also "Missy" which could be
used by a slave to the younger miss ("Yaz'm, Missy") or by someone in authority
to put a younger miss in her place ("Don't you talk to me that way, Missy!") (I
view all of this as (stereotypical?) Southern usage). More nationally, "Miss"
as an anthropomorphism doesn't spring to mind, but as a kiddie show moniker, it
works ("Miss Jean" of _Romper Room_). As someone else mentioned, that extended,
in former (pre-Ms.) days to female teachers, either young women right out of
school, or old maids (who may have shared living quarters with another single
woman, hmmm). And while I don't think that flies much anymore in these parts in
public education, it lives on in usages like "Miss Eugenia's School of Dance",
which does cater to the K-8 crowd of aspiring tippy-toers.

"Miss", as (stereotypical?) Southern usage, seems to apply deferentially to women,
married or not, in some position of power, whether as matriarch ("Miss Ellie"
of _Dallas_), or as some other source of wealth, like debutantes at a
coming-out cotillion ("Miss Victoria, may I have the honor of getting you a cup
of punch?"). I'm thinkin' this is a remnant of ante-bellum days that has
persisted. How far that's spread to general usage, I cannot say. That
MorphemeAddict heard it in the workplace makes me wonder if there was some sort
of pecking order or if the usage has indeed generalized. And, of course,
there's the influence of Black American English, which I know little to nothing
about. But "Miss Thing/Thang", jocular at best, hardly respectful at worst, I
suspect, started there, before being adopted by the gay community.

Kou

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