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For other items that native English speakers may not know - I believe in some Indian languages there are different nouns for your uncle and aunt, depending if t

For other items that native English speakers may not know - I believe in some Indian languages there are different nouns for your uncle and aunt, depending if they are on your father's or mother's side.

MagnumOpus 5y ago
Many other languages do. I think all Chinese languages do, but you don't need to go that far. Even German/Dutch/Frisian/Swiss do have it, although nowadays few use them and many people don't even know. (Father's siblings are Onkel/Tante cognate to uncle/auntie, but Mother's siblings are Oheim/Ohm/Öhi if male and Muhme/Muoike if female.)
m_eiman 5y ago
I like the Swedish variant of this. It's basically describing the relationsship in terms of closes family ties, so maternal grandfather is "morfar" ie "mother father". Same principle applies to a bunch of relationships: farmor - father's mother farfar - father's father faster - father's sister (abbreviated from "far syster") moster - mother's sistem (abbreviated) farbror - father's brother I like to extend the basic set of these to older generations, so instead of "my mormor's father" it'd be "mormorfar". Very practical!
- Terry_Roll 5y ago
  Its interesting how different languages have evolved, so Inuit have many words for snow because this highlights area's of concern or importance for them. So the fact these language differentiations exist in Indian and Chinese language, highlights an area of concern or importance for them. In Iceland, surnames use the fathers firstname and sson for son and dotir for daughter, to highlight the relationship in an otherwise small community. Whether that cultural habit is to reduce the incidence of inbreeding I've yet to find out, but it makes me wonder. History and culture gives away a lot of metadata.
  - tonguez 5y ago
    “ Whether that cultural habit is to reduce the incidence of inbreeding I've yet to find out, but it makes me wonder.” That’s racist. “The only way these people are going to be able to stop fucking their cousins as if they come up with a naming system that makes it extremely clear who is related to who.” There are probably other explanations other than being inbred as to why they do this. Like how some people go by Junior or Senior. Do you think that’s to prevent inbreeding also?
    - cdirkx 5y ago
      Knowing who is related too closely to you can be a problem on a small island, the comment was possibly referencing the Icelandic dating-app that tracks if you share a grandparent with someone you meet in a bar[1]; a feature the app itself calls a "Sifjaspellsspillir", or "Incest Spoiler". Interestingly the article mentions that this is a problem precicely because of the Icelandic naming scheme: > Neither patronymic or matronymic, instead each person's father's first name becomes the child's last name. Each new generation has a completely different name to the name of the generation that preceded it. Cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews -- all could have very different names. [1] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/iceland-incest-app https://www.wired.co.uk/article/iceland-incest-app
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  - hansbo 5y ago
    Historically, I believe this is true for all Norse cultures. The most common surnames in Sweden (like Andersson) are afaik based on the most common given names when surnames were changed to be static in families, which was a gradual process a few hundred years ago.
    - vidarh 5y ago
      It wasn't "finished" until much more recently than a few hundred years ago. My great grandfather Søren Kristian Magnussen was born in 1890, and he got his fathers last name. His father, August Magnussen was born Magnusson in 1842 to a Magnus Andersson near Bullaren in Sweden (ignoring the mothers here only because they had no impact on the last names). August's brother Johan Alfred Magnusson had (at least) three children who were named Johansson / Johansdotter born between 1885-1890. So even that late some children's last names were still derived from their fathers first names. It makes genealogy both easier and harder - on one hand apart from during and after the transition period you get the fathers first name "for free" (most of the time, except when they complicate things by using the name of a farm instead of a last name), on the other hand it makes searches for the transition period a real mess (as if the poor hand writing of everyone involved in record-keeping isn't bad enough).
- nathell 5y ago
  Ooh, this is just like Lisp’s CADR being a composition of CAR and CDR!
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
OJFord 5y ago
> I believe in some Indian languages there are different nouns for your uncle and aunt, depending if they are on your father's or mother's side. Not only that, but in some cases depending on their (the uncle and your father) relative age. I'm learning Hindi, so for example paternal uncle older than your father is your taaya (ताया, or taauu ताऊ) but younger than your father is your chaacha (चाचा).
adiM 5y ago
And, for paternal uncles, different words to indicate if they are older or younger than your father.
alias_neo 5y ago
This is also the same in Arabic. There are separate words for paternal/maternal aunt/uncle, and by extension your cousins who are "son/daughter of paternal/maternal aunt/uncle".

MagnumOpus 5y ago

Many other languages do. I think all Chinese languages do, but you don't need to go that far. Even German/Dutch/Frisian/Swiss do have it, although nowadays few use them and many people don't even know. (Father's siblings are Onkel/Tante cognate to uncle/auntie, but Mother's siblings are Oheim/Ohm/Öhi if male and Muhme/Muoike if female.)

m_eiman 5y ago

I like the Swedish variant of this. It's basically describing the relationsship in terms of closes family ties, so maternal grandfather is "morfar" ie "mother father". Same principle applies to a bunch of relationships: farmor - father's mother farfar - father's father faster - father's sister (abbreviated from "far syster") moster - mother's sistem (abbreviated) farbror - father's brother I like to extend the basic set of these to older generations, so instead of "my mormor's father" it'd be "mormorfar". Very practical!

Terry_Roll 5y ago
Its interesting how different languages have evolved, so Inuit have many words for snow because this highlights area's of concern or importance for them. So the fact these language differentiations exist in Indian and Chinese language, highlights an area of concern or importance for them. In Iceland, surnames use the fathers firstname and sson for son and dotir for daughter, to highlight the relationship in an otherwise small community. Whether that cultural habit is to reduce the incidence of inbreeding I've yet to find out, but it makes me wonder. History and culture gives away a lot of metadata.
- tonguez 5y ago
  “ Whether that cultural habit is to reduce the incidence of inbreeding I've yet to find out, but it makes me wonder.” That’s racist. “The only way these people are going to be able to stop fucking their cousins as if they come up with a naming system that makes it extremely clear who is related to who.” There are probably other explanations other than being inbred as to why they do this. Like how some people go by Junior or Senior. Do you think that’s to prevent inbreeding also?
  - cdirkx 5y ago
    Knowing who is related too closely to you can be a problem on a small island, the comment was possibly referencing the Icelandic dating-app that tracks if you share a grandparent with someone you meet in a bar[1]; a feature the app itself calls a "Sifjaspellsspillir", or "Incest Spoiler". Interestingly the article mentions that this is a problem precicely because of the Icelandic naming scheme: > Neither patronymic or matronymic, instead each person's father's first name becomes the child's last name. Each new generation has a completely different name to the name of the generation that preceded it. Cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews -- all could have very different names. [1] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/iceland-incest-app https://www.wired.co.uk/article/iceland-incest-app
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- hansbo 5y ago
  Historically, I believe this is true for all Norse cultures. The most common surnames in Sweden (like Andersson) are afaik based on the most common given names when surnames were changed to be static in families, which was a gradual process a few hundred years ago.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    It wasn't "finished" until much more recently than a few hundred years ago. My great grandfather Søren Kristian Magnussen was born in 1890, and he got his fathers last name. His father, August Magnussen was born Magnusson in 1842 to a Magnus Andersson near Bullaren in Sweden (ignoring the mothers here only because they had no impact on the last names). August's brother Johan Alfred Magnusson had (at least) three children who were named Johansson / Johansdotter born between 1885-1890. So even that late some children's last names were still derived from their fathers first names. It makes genealogy both easier and harder - on one hand apart from during and after the transition period you get the fathers first name "for free" (most of the time, except when they complicate things by using the name of a farm instead of a last name), on the other hand it makes searches for the transition period a real mess (as if the poor hand writing of everyone involved in record-keeping isn't bad enough).
nathell 5y ago
Ooh, this is just like Lisp’s CADR being a composition of CAR and CDR!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

OJFord 5y ago

> I believe in some Indian languages there are different nouns for your uncle and aunt, depending if they are on your father's or mother's side. Not only that, but in some cases depending on their (the uncle and your father) relative age. I'm learning Hindi, so for example paternal uncle older than your father is your taaya (ताया, or taauu ताऊ) but younger than your father is your chaacha (चाचा).

adiM 5y ago

And, for paternal uncles, different words to indicate if they are older or younger than your father.

alias_neo 5y ago

This is also the same in Arabic. There are separate words for paternal/maternal aunt/uncle, and by extension your cousins who are "son/daughter of paternal/maternal aunt/uncle".