Friday, April 6, 2012

F ~ Far = father


Hejsan igen!
Bonus word igen. It means again and is pronounced “eee + yen”. I'm excited about today's lesson because of how well it shows the preciseness of Swedish. Our word today is “far” which is pronounced just like the English word which means a long distance. In Swedish it means father. Not daddy, that is “pappa”. (Oh look, another bonus word, pronounced “pop + po(ndering)”. Far's companion word is mor which I'm pretty sure you can guess is mother. It's pronounced like the English word for windswept, lonely landscape (ala Wuthering Heights – moor). It's casual version, like mommy, is “Mamma” pronounced “mum + ma” as in English for ma, as in ma and pa. Phew. That's a lot of words for one lesson. But, check out what we can do with them!

In English, when referring to the older generation, we say complicated things like, my grandfather on my dad's side. In Swedish, that would be “Farfar”. Father's father. I'll write them out for you. Instead of paragraphs to introduce a room full of relatives, here's all you need. Four words.

Farfar = father's father
Farmor = father's mother
Morfar = mother's father
Mormor = mother's mother

Isn't that just deliciously simple?

I'd like to share my family with you.  Picture quality horrid since these are digital shots of old photos from the seventies which were then glued into a scrapbook and cover in plastic protective sheets...but you'll get the idea.

This first one is my Far, my Pappa.  Taking care of me after I broke my hip getting hit by a car.  I'm nine, and he's holding me up because I had to be vertical for certain parts of the day to keep circulation going or some such nonsense. 


This is my Farmor.  I'm about eleven, I think.  

This is Farfar, I'm 17. 


 I only met my Morfar a couple of times.  He visited us in Sweden in 1972, which makes me 7.  He died unexpectedly of a massive heart-attack in 1974, which was the year we came to the US.  And the reason why.  


This is my Mormor, my Grandma Vivian who lived until she was a week from 98.  She died two years ago. 


 I love my family.  Thanks for the letting me cheat on the postcard thing.  At least it wasn't vacation pictures! Ok, technically some of them were...






35 comments:

Cheryl said...

These pictures are the cat's ass!

You just cleared up a lifelong mystery for me. The woman we called Grammy was really my Mormor and to this day my mother always refers to her as 'mum-ma' ~ a pronunciation that's so distinctive and unlike my mom's usual careful diction. Turns out this is actually the precise way to say what she means.

Yes, dear heart, I am 1/4 'Svede' and know absolutely nothing about my heritage.

Charmaine Clancy said...

That's an adorable way to describe those important relatives.
Wagging Tales

HeatherL said...

i have to say this is a much simpler way to differentiate maternal and paternal lines! I like it! How would you indicate a great grandparent?

ediFanoB said...

Hejsan!

so many new words :-)

In Germany we do not differ grand parents

Farfar and farmor = Großvater
Farmor and mormor = Großmutter

So farfars far = great-grandfahter= Urgroßvater ?

Anyway an unusual but lvoely way to introduce your family.

Glad Påsk = Frohe Ostern
(thanks to free online dictionaries)

Sally said...

What a great way to remember your relatives. I have a scrapbook of old photographs going back to my great- grandmother.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Now that's a really simple way to do it! And much shorter.
You'll have to tell us about getting hit by a car sometime.

Laurita said...

Lovely family photos. And I love the simplicity of naming the grandparents. It makes specifying which grandmother or father you are talking about.

Annalisa Crawford said...

Great photos. How long were you in plaster for? It looks horrendous.

Dani said...

Hit by a car! Oh my.

I love the meaning of these words. All fathers are very special.

D.E. Malone said...

Thanks once again for introducing some words from my ancestors language. I'm a 1/4 Swedish. My grandmother's mother came over to the States in 1904 from Lund. I love that identifying parents, grandparents is so easy compared to English!

Amanda Trought said...

Thanks for sharing your family images, I love looking at pictures of the past. My stepdaughter is having a baby and I didn't want to be called 'Granny!' I think Mormor is so much better! Have a blessed weekend.
Amanda

Amanda - Realityarts-Creativity
Art Blog

Shannon said...

I love looking at old pictures of family members. These are great! I think I've got to make some time to break out the photo albums this weekend! Thanks.
Shannon

Matthew MacNish said...

I love how they have different specific words for maternal and paternal grandparents.

Two Sentence Horrors said...

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and memories! I enjoyed this very much.

Lynn Proctor said...

yes your pictures were wonderful

Anonymous said...

I love your story and photos! I'm also wondering what you do for greats. Would it just continue forever like your great great grandma is your Mormormormor?

xoxo Lloralye @ Adorning Schemes A to Z

About JollyJilly said...

Very interesting about the words and I really loved your pictures. Photo's hold so many memories dont they. Im now following and look forward to your G.
Please come visit me over at my blog in the UK anytime
www.jollyjillys.blogspot.com

Lauren said...

You're right, that is much easier.

Thank you for providing another great word igen. :)

Bushman said...

Great pictures. So nostalgic!

Sonia Lal said...

That's pretty cute. I like those words.

Heather Murphy said...

This has been my favorite lesson so far...and great family pics

Martha said...

Hi Tina,
Just stopping by to see how you are doing on the challenge. Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Andrea said...

This brings back fond memories of my college roommate talking about her Mormor and farmor

Anna (herding cats-burning soup) said...

Oh that is easy! I like how that's set up. Much easier than how we explain which grandparent is which. The photos are wonderful! It's always so neat to look back and see how things have changed!

Anna@ Herding Cats & Burning Soup

Debra Harris-Johnson said...

I loved meeting your family and sharing in your life,
dreamweaver

Sue @ Kid Lit Reviews. said...

What a fascinating blog. I was glued to your page. Swedish seems such a simple language if you can push your English to the back of your mind. It seems elegantly simple. I mean that it is not easy to learn, because an exact word for word translation won't always work. Yet, mor mother mormor mother's mother or grandmother. It seems easy.

I am going to view the days that precede this and see if what I am thinking, but not expressing very well, makes sense, at least to me.

Thanks for all your help. I took your advice about putting directions to the comment posting. I had no idea the comments were not after the plog. Why did the blog developer put them st the top? I am going to look for a new design. I do not like this. Thanks for telling me. I honestly did not know I had this situation.

k~ said...

What a fun way to learn a language! I just stopped by while visiting people on the A-Z blogging list. This was one of the most creative uses I have seen for the challenge. Nice to meet some of your family in the process :-)

A-Z 2012 (#49) - Bloggit Write A-Z 2012 - Poetry
A-Z 2012 (#861) - Bloggit Write A-Z 2012 - Haiku

Christine said...

This is the first time I've stopped by since the challenge started. I love your theme; it's so fascinating!


Christine@
Coffee in the Garden
In the Care of the Great Physician

Unknown said...

First..yes, Life is Good! :) Thank you for teaching me new words and the your images are lovely. I am a new follower.

Marcie said...

I love theSwedish way to describe the family, so easy! Glad påsk! Marcie @www.marciespostbox.blogspot.com

Jane of JaneZworld said...

I ma of Swedish descent so I enjoyed that
I am glad I found you
here is my link
http://www.astringofpearls.org/a-z-in-26-days/
The google login is out of date

Jessica Ferguson said...

Wonderful post. I enjoyed your pictures so much. Today, I posted about genealogy and show a pic of ny grandparent's wedding day. Come see me!

Kittie Howard said...

Can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this post. Love the way you tied all together. And, yes, your generational system is very easy.

Unknown said...

Jag saknar ord, när jag läser det här. Så bra skrivet!

Such a good post. Tears come to my eyes.

Kram/Hugs,
Anna

g-girl said...

do you still have family back in sweden? how often do you get to see them (if you do).