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Genuinely curious, but is it actually like that in most languages? I wondered if it was maybe an East/West difference, since I haven't come across that in my Fr

Genuinely curious, but is it actually like that in most languages? I wondered if it was maybe an East/West difference, since I haven't come across that in my French & German learning, and I didn't think Dutch or Danish were like that either. But apparently Swedish does have this (eg faster/moster for paternal aunt & maternal aunt)? (Most of my learning is via Duolingo, so I'm no expert, just curious.)

toxik 7y ago
faster = faders syster = father’s sister. Same for all of them. Ours is pretty simple, I imagine this system is intended to cover Chinese kinship which is _really_ complex. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship#Common_extended_family_and_terminology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship#Common_exten...
mantas 7y ago
Didn't even English have a bunch of words that were lost as time went by? We do have quite a few words in Lithuanian (e.g. for maternal/paternal branches and more detailed words for "X in law"). But it was getting simplified in the past few decades. I've heard quite a few words that I couldn't describe without looking at the dictionary.
- zerr 7y ago
  Yup - https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/kinterms/oldenglish.html https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/k...
svrtknst 7y ago
Sweden has it, at least for aunts/uncles, and grandparents (and great grandparents, and great-great-grandparents...). For aunts its faster/moster (portmanteau of father-sister, mother-sister, roughly). For uncles its farbror/morbror (lit. father-brother, mother-brother). For grandparents its farfar/morfar (father-father, mother-father) and farmor/mormor (father-mother, mother-mother). A great grandparent could be e.g. a farfarsfar, or father-fathers-father.
bzbarsky 7y ago
Modern Russian has no difference between paternal/maternal aunt/uncle (though there are apparently archaic forms that denote the difference that no one uses). On the other hand, it has different words for "wife's mother" and "husband's mother", which in English are both "mother-in-law". Similar for the "father-in-law" relationship: different words for "wife's father" and "husband's father". Similar for sibling-in-law relationships. (Of course there's the open question of whether Russian would count as "East" or "West".)
rolleiflex 7y ago
Turkish is like that, with mind-bogglingly specific words for apparently half the planet that are your distant relatives. It’s losing them fast though. Newer generations just don’t really care, so the words are falling out of use. I really only know cousin, aunt, uncle.
valarauko 7y ago
Indian languages have this sort of kinship granularity. Some of these distinctions include: * Maternal/paternal parental siblings, with distinct terms for their respective spouses * Maternal/paternal parental sibling - distinct terms if they are older or younger than your own parent

toxik 7y ago

faster = faders syster = father’s sister. Same for all of them. Ours is pretty simple, I imagine this system is intended to cover Chinese kinship which is _really_ complex. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship#Common_extended_family_and_terminology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_kinship#Common_exten...

mantas 7y ago

Didn't even English have a bunch of words that were lost as time went by? We do have quite a few words in Lithuanian (e.g. for maternal/paternal branches and more detailed words for "X in law"). But it was getting simplified in the past few decades. I've heard quite a few words that I couldn't describe without looking at the dictionary.

zerr 7y ago
Yup - https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/kinterms/oldenglish.html https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/k...

svrtknst 7y ago

Sweden has it, at least for aunts/uncles, and grandparents (and great grandparents, and great-great-grandparents...). For aunts its faster/moster (portmanteau of father-sister, mother-sister, roughly). For uncles its farbror/morbror (lit. father-brother, mother-brother). For grandparents its farfar/morfar (father-father, mother-father) and farmor/mormor (father-mother, mother-mother). A great grandparent could be e.g. a farfarsfar, or father-fathers-father.

bzbarsky 7y ago

Modern Russian has no difference between paternal/maternal aunt/uncle (though there are apparently archaic forms that denote the difference that no one uses). On the other hand, it has different words for "wife's mother" and "husband's mother", which in English are both "mother-in-law". Similar for the "father-in-law" relationship: different words for "wife's father" and "husband's father". Similar for sibling-in-law relationships. (Of course there's the open question of whether Russian would count as "East" or "West".)

rolleiflex 7y ago

Turkish is like that, with mind-bogglingly specific words for apparently half the planet that are your distant relatives. It’s losing them fast though. Newer generations just don’t really care, so the words are falling out of use. I really only know cousin, aunt, uncle.

valarauko 7y ago

Indian languages have this sort of kinship granularity. Some of these distinctions include: * Maternal/paternal parental siblings, with distinct terms for their respective spouses * Maternal/paternal parental sibling - distinct terms if they are older or younger than your own parent