[Multilingual Monday] Family Ties
I'm amazed I haven't covered this topic yet! Today we talk about terms for family members, and how such terms are used differently in English and make distinctions that would take further elaboration in English as well ...
JAPANESE: We'll start with Japanese, where there is a differentiation between older and younger siblings -- an older brother is 兄, ani, and a younger brother is 弟, otouto; likewise, an older sister is 姉, ane, and a younger sister is 妹, imouto, and even uncles have this differentiation -- 伯父 is an uncle older than your parent and 叔父, shukufu, is younger. Differentiation is also made as to whether or not you're talking to the person or merely referring to them -- 姉さん, neeasn, "Older sister," when one actually is calling or talking to said older sister. This phenomenon is seen in most kinship terms in Japanese -- お父さん, otousan, "Father!", vs. 父, chichi, "(my) father".
MANDARIN: Mandarin does differentiations of age just like Japanese but uses different characters in certain instances -- 哥哥, gēge, for "older brother," for example, and at least for the immediate family, the character is usually doubled -- 妹妹, mèi mei, "younger sister". Mandarin goes further than Japanese to make differentiations not made in English, and certainly not Japanese: 外婆, wài pó, "mother's mother"; 嬸嬸, shěn shěn , "father's younger brother's wife"; 舅舅, jiù jiu, "mother's brother"; or 阿姨, āyí, "mother's sister".
HINDI: While Hindi doesn't have unique terms for an "older brother", etc., like Japanese or Mandarin, it does differentiate in other aspects like Mandarin: A paternal grandfather is दादा, daadaa, and paternal grandmother दादी, daadii, whereas a maternal grandfather is a नाना, naanaa and a maternal grandmother नानी, naanii. Note that these keep to the Hindi gender endings (-a being masculine and -i being feminine). This pattern follows as seen in paternal siblings (चाचा, caacaa, "uncle" and चाची, caacii, "aunt") vs. maternal siblinds (मामा, maamaa, "uncle" and मामी, maamii, "aunt"). Other terms of note: भाभी, bhaabhii, "wife of an elder brother"; जेठानी, jeThaani, "husband's elder brother's wife"; देवरानी, devaraanii, "wife of husband's younger brother", and नन्दोई, nandoii, "husband's sister's husband".
BASQUE: Nowhere near extreme as above (for example, lehengusu is the only word for any kind of cousin; osaba is the only word for any kind of uncle; &c.), there are some unique differentiations: ahizpa is the term for a sister of a female, whereas arreba is the sister of a male. The same goes for anaia (brother of a male) vs. neba (brother of a female), though it should be noted that while everyone makes the sister differentiation, the brother differentiation has become limited to dialectical use.
CHEROKEE: Kinship terms in Cherokee are all verbs, not nouns, and conjugate the same as other verbs in the Cherokee language. Thus "my father" is ᎠᎩᏙᏓ, agidoda, "your father" (singular) is ᏣᏙᏓ, tsadoda, "his and my father" is ᎣᎩᏂᏙᏓ, oginidoda, "our (not your) father" is ᎣᎩᏙᏓ, ogidoda. The literal translation is something like "I who am a child to him," "you who are a child to him", etc. All kinship terms work this way -- even "children" ("your children" becomes ᏕᏣᏓᏘᎿᎠ, detsadatihnaa, "those that were born to you") and "friend" ("my friend" becomes ᎣᎩᎾᎵᎢ, oginalii, "we two are friends"). Siblings are one of the few times gender is marked in Cherokee -- "my brother" would depend on YOUR gender. If you are male you'd say ᏦᏍᏓᏓᏅᏟ, tsosdadahnvtli, "my fellow brother"; if you are female it'd become "my sibling of the opposite sex", ᎠᎩᏙᎢ, agidoi. This is also how males refer to their sister, but women refer to their sisters as "my fellow sister", ᎠᎩᎸᎩ, agilvgi.
By all means, comments are welcome! There are plenty of languages I DON'T know, so I'd love to see the unique familial terms used in other languages!
JAPANESE: We'll start with Japanese, where there is a differentiation between older and younger siblings -- an older brother is 兄, ani, and a younger brother is 弟, otouto; likewise, an older sister is 姉, ane, and a younger sister is 妹, imouto, and even uncles have this differentiation -- 伯父 is an uncle older than your parent and 叔父, shukufu, is younger. Differentiation is also made as to whether or not you're talking to the person or merely referring to them -- 姉さん, neeasn, "Older sister," when one actually is calling or talking to said older sister. This phenomenon is seen in most kinship terms in Japanese -- お父さん, otousan, "Father!", vs. 父, chichi, "(my) father".
MANDARIN: Mandarin does differentiations of age just like Japanese but uses different characters in certain instances -- 哥哥, gēge, for "older brother," for example, and at least for the immediate family, the character is usually doubled -- 妹妹, mèi mei, "younger sister". Mandarin goes further than Japanese to make differentiations not made in English, and certainly not Japanese: 外婆, wài pó, "mother's mother"; 嬸嬸, shěn shěn , "father's younger brother's wife"; 舅舅, jiù jiu, "mother's brother"; or 阿姨, āyí, "mother's sister".
HINDI: While Hindi doesn't have unique terms for an "older brother", etc., like Japanese or Mandarin, it does differentiate in other aspects like Mandarin: A paternal grandfather is दादा, daadaa, and paternal grandmother दादी, daadii, whereas a maternal grandfather is a नाना, naanaa and a maternal grandmother नानी, naanii. Note that these keep to the Hindi gender endings (-a being masculine and -i being feminine). This pattern follows as seen in paternal siblings (चाचा, caacaa, "uncle" and चाची, caacii, "aunt") vs. maternal siblinds (मामा, maamaa, "uncle" and मामी, maamii, "aunt"). Other terms of note: भाभी, bhaabhii, "wife of an elder brother"; जेठानी, jeThaani, "husband's elder brother's wife"; देवरानी, devaraanii, "wife of husband's younger brother", and नन्दोई, nandoii, "husband's sister's husband".
BASQUE: Nowhere near extreme as above (for example, lehengusu is the only word for any kind of cousin; osaba is the only word for any kind of uncle; &c.), there are some unique differentiations: ahizpa is the term for a sister of a female, whereas arreba is the sister of a male. The same goes for anaia (brother of a male) vs. neba (brother of a female), though it should be noted that while everyone makes the sister differentiation, the brother differentiation has become limited to dialectical use.
CHEROKEE: Kinship terms in Cherokee are all verbs, not nouns, and conjugate the same as other verbs in the Cherokee language. Thus "my father" is ᎠᎩᏙᏓ, agidoda, "your father" (singular) is ᏣᏙᏓ, tsadoda, "his and my father" is ᎣᎩᏂᏙᏓ, oginidoda, "our (not your) father" is ᎣᎩᏙᏓ, ogidoda. The literal translation is something like "I who am a child to him," "you who are a child to him", etc. All kinship terms work this way -- even "children" ("your children" becomes ᏕᏣᏓᏘᎿᎠ, detsadatihnaa, "those that were born to you") and "friend" ("my friend" becomes ᎣᎩᎾᎵᎢ, oginalii, "we two are friends"). Siblings are one of the few times gender is marked in Cherokee -- "my brother" would depend on YOUR gender. If you are male you'd say ᏦᏍᏓᏓᏅᏟ, tsosdadahnvtli, "my fellow brother"; if you are female it'd become "my sibling of the opposite sex", ᎠᎩᏙᎢ, agidoi. This is also how males refer to their sister, but women refer to their sisters as "my fellow sister", ᎠᎩᎸᎩ, agilvgi.
By all means, comments are welcome! There are plenty of languages I DON'T know, so I'd love to see the unique familial terms used in other languages!