Comment by davchana | Hacker News Reader

Comment by davchana | Hacker News Reader

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In India, in my language Punjabi, we have different words for

Sister of mother

Sister of father

Elder brother of father

Younger brother of father

Wife of elder brother of father

Wife of younger brother of father

Brother of mother

Wife of brother of mother

Son of brother

Daughter of brother

Son of sister

Daughter of sister

Husband of sister

Wife of younger brother

Wife of elder brother

Sister of wife

Brother of wife

Husband of sister of wife

Wife of brother of wife

Brother of father of husband or wife

Sister of father of husband or wife

Wife of son of brother

Wife of son of sister

Husband of daughter of brother

Husband of daughter of sister

In English, most of these are Uncle, Aunt, Cousin, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, nephew, niece.

In Japanese, there are also distinctions like these, but only in characters, not words. For example:

- 叔母さん and 伯母さん both read おばさん (obasan) and mean, respectively, younger sister of father or mother and elder sister of father or mother.

- 叔父さん and 伯父さん both read おじさん (ojisan) and mean, respectively, younger brother of father or mother and elder brother of father or mother.

- お母さん and お義母さん both read おかあさん (okaasan) and mean, respectively, mother and mother in law. etc.

These distinctions are imported from Chinese, where 叔母 and 伯母 are pronounced differently, although nowadays 婶婶 is much more common than 叔母 and both only refer to the wife of the father's younger brother, while 伯母 is an older brother's wife.

There are many more different terms for various fine distinctions of relatedness, but I only know those I had a need to use, and when I asked a Chinese friend for help, he told me that he can't remember all of them either.

Nice to learn that Bulgarian is not the only language that is so precise about relations. However, many of these words are disappearing from usage as families get smaller and younger people don't learn them.

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