Talk:grandaunt

Out of curiosity, I looked through the hits for "her grand-aunt" in Google Books, and jotted down where and when they were from. Perhaps that will help us decide which dialect this is.

1. the USA

   published in New York, 1881 (a novel? published in a monthly)

   written in Florida, 1882-6 (in a letter)

   written by a New Jerseyian, 1894 (or earlier; in a poem by Thomas Dunn English)

   published in New York, 1907

   published in the USA, 2007 (transcript of a conversation with a White Mountain Apache speaker, who was the user of the term)

2. England (or an unspecified place in the UK)

   published in London, 1822 (book on Lady Jane Grey)

   published in London, 1893 (a novel published in a monthly)

   published in the UK, 2009

3. Scotland

   published in Scotland, 1852 (in a weekly)

   published in Edinburgh & London, 1894 (in a book about Caroline Nairne "by her great grand-niece"!)

4. Ireland

   Ireland (book published in 2010 on the 1900-1922 Republican women)

5. India

   India, 1874 (published in 1892; a court transcript, also interesting because it uses Hoa'ble/Hoa’ble)

   India, 2007 (novel by an Indian author)

6. China

   2008 (published in the USA by a Chinese author)

7. the Philippines

   Philippines, 1983 (transcript of a Philippine Supreme Court session)

8. misc

   1863-83 (published in New York, in an article about / translation of French novels)

   1894? (an article about / translation of French novels, published in the Edinburgh magazine in New York)

   2002 (published by a US/UK/Canadian publisher, a book of Asian women's writings; uses the term in quotation marks)

That's the first two pages of books. These mostly-old books show that the term was, in the past, used across the English-speaking realm, though it may have always been much rarer than "great aunt". - -sche (discuss) 19:45, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Next, to get an idea of who currently uses the term, I looked for instances of "his grand-aunt" between 1980 and 2010:

1. the USA

   Chicago, IL, 2008 (an edited book on estate planning which also conviniently defines the term: "his grand-aunt (ie, the sister of his grandparent)")

   Lincoln, NE, 2003 (a book by an author "educated both in Ghana and the United States")

   USA, 2005 (a book on Japanese women, by an American author)

2. Germany

   Tübingen, BW, 2009 (a book by a German- and British-educated author)

3. China

   2004 (a book by a Chinese author)

4. misc and reprints of pre-1980 works

   Middlesex, England, 2006 (or is this a reprint of a pre-1980 work?)

   1978 (a translation of the Orkneyinga Saga published in the US)

   2003 (a book published in Somerville, MA, in the USA by Tibetan? authors)

   reprint of Jude the Obscure (1894-1895) (similarly [1], [2], [3])

   reprint of the History of Spiritualism

   reprint/translation of an 1875 letter by Blavatsky / Блава́тская / Блаватська

   reprint? of a work on India by Malleson? published in England

   reprint of a 1914? work on Native American myths

   reprint of a 1867-1931 work by a British author

   reprint? of an earlier work on/by George Crabbe

   reprint

   [4] (a book of English and Scottish ballads I couldn't find the publication info of)

That is again the first two pages of results. - -sche (discuss) 20:57, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

So, the IP was correct to remove the 'US' label. - -sche (discuss) 17:40, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

Commonness of various forms

See Talk:grandniece. - -sche (discuss) 17:40, 18 July 2015 (UTC)