Ed,
You have posed an interesting question. My parents taught us to use these terms as a matter of politeness, though in the Traunau village dialect,
You have posed an interesting question. My parents taught us to use these terms as a matter of politeness, though in the Traunau village dialect,
it sounded like Fehre and Bass (as in a bus). I recognized your spellings right away. I never heard of a meaning attached to these terms. My aunts
and uncles were always Onkel or Tante. A Landsmann was very likely to be called Fehre.
Peter Reiss