6 ms·

Like what? English already has all the "twice removed" and other definitions that no one actually uses.

davidgay 3y ago
Not Armenian, but, e.g., Bulgarian has a distinct name for the relation of two husbands of (not in-law) sisters. In English, that's just one of the "brother in-law" cases. On the whole, Bulgarian has far more such relationship words than English.
eitland 3y ago
I am fairly sure English doesn't have (or at least does not use) separate everyday words for farmor/farfar (fathers mother / fathers mother) or mormor/morfar (same for mothers parents). Sure in academic language there is probably a way to describe it (edit: and the concept is easy to explain) but there is nothing quick that you can use to tell a kid so they immediately know which of the grandparents we are going to visit without naming them or the location they live in somehow? Even among the words that do exist, like "siblings", I have a feeling that in some dialects or sociolects it isn't used and people say "brothers and sisters" instead. (I'm not sure about this last one but I have worked with a lot of English and American people over the years and it does feel this way).
- hervature 3y ago
  I can't tell if this is serious. I don't even know which language you're using but it is literally no different than mom's mom and dad's mom other than a space.
  - eitland 3y ago
    It is Norwegian. And it is serious. And I am not saying the concept doesn't exist, only that as far as I am aware there is no usable everyday word for it. I mean: nobody will tell their kids they are going to visit dads mum and dads dad next week, rather than telling them they are going to visit grandma and granddad "across the country" or something?
    - mjochim 3y ago
      Things like this can be highly family-specific. A friend of mine (German) says that in his family, his grandmothers are distinguished as "Oma" and "Omi". Which are both generic German words for any grandmother, but in his family, they are more specific. Like names. Another friend, they used "Oma" and "Großmutter" (a third generic word) to distinguish the two. So there must certainly be families in the English-speaking world where kids commonly say "dad's dad" and "mom's dad". Even when unlike in Scandinavian languages, it's not the canonical form.
      - msrenee 3y ago
        I think it's more common to call them Grandma and Grandpa Lastname or Grandma Firstname and Grandpa Firstname. I've also seen it where one set of grandparents are Grandma and Grandpa and the other set is Nana and Papa or Mimi and Pop Pop or whatever set of less formal terms they use for the relations. I'm not sure I've met anyone who doesn't have more familiar terms than dad's mom and mom's mom. They're probably out there, but not super common.
    - robertlagrant 3y ago
      "What are you doing this weekend, little Timmy?" "One is repairing to the country where one will be enjoying the company of one's paternal grandmama and grandpapa."
      - flangola7 3y ago
        Repairing?
        mjochim 3y ago
        Retreating?
        mtVessel 3y ago
        It's a slightly archaic usage, but it's correct: repair [1] verb repaired; repairing; repairs intransitive verb 1a: to betake oneself : go repaired to the judge's chambers 1b: to come together : rally [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repair https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repair
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    The space makes the difference between "word exists" and "word doesn't exist".
    - eitland 3y ago
      I would have accepted it if it was something people would actually say, even if it was written like two words or more. Example: sister/brother in law is something that is close enough even if it isn't written in one word like Norwegian svigerinne/svoger. But as far as I am aware English only uses grandsomething (or variations of it) + further description as needed.
      - afiori 3y ago
        Paternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, and maternal grandfather
        Agentlien 3y ago
        There is a big difference, though. In English you would usually say grandma/grandpa and rarely qualify by on which side. In Swedish and Norwegian you always specify because the words for grandparents are inherent specific to whether they are paternal or maternal.
        afiori 3y ago
        In everyday speech you generally do not try to be this specific, but if you wanted to (e.g. recounting family history to a doctor or talking about the relationship between your parents and granparents) you could use them to be more specific in a clear way. I agree that almost every use of farfar should be simply translated as grandmother.
        throwaway290 3y ago
        Will you be satisfied if your brother or sister were only describable as "sibling"? Would it roll off your tongue? Similarly in many languages using the wildcard equivalent to mean something more specific is unnatural.
  - mendigou 3y ago
    The point of the conversation is how people express these relationships in their day-to-day so they can be encoded in software. Would your grandparents' contact be saved on your phone as "Mom's mom" or as "grandma"? Probably the second, which is indistinguishable from "grandma" as "Dad's mom". In Norwegian, people would naturally call these "mormor" and "farmor" and they would expect that relationship to be correctly labeled in their localized app.
    - kalleboo 3y ago
      At least in Swedish, I don't even think there is a generic word for "grandmother", you literally always in every case specify which one it is.
    - hervature 3y ago
      I am fully aware of what the topic is about. I'm just pointing out that the English language and native English speakers definitely use the concept of mom's mom and dad's mom without the needing "official" words like "momdad" and "dadmom" because the person I responded to said > I am fairly sure English doesn't have (or at least does not use) separate everyday words for farmor/farfar. They then said you would need "academic" language to describe mom's mom and dad's mom. That's why I said I could not tell if they were serious. Anyway, I think you would be surprised if you asked English speakers what they call their grandparents. I personally used memere and grandma to distinguish between my mom's mom and my dad's mom. The point I'm making is that not having specific words for these relationships does not make English speakers unaware of the difference.
    - Brybry 3y ago
      For day-to-day familiar conversation we generally use nicknames for grandparents in the US and that's what is in our contact list. There are probably hundreds or thousands of nickname words for grandma based on a variety of cultural backgrounds, family tradition, and mispronunciations by grandchildren. The language we use really depends on setting. In a more formal setting we might say paternal grandmother/grandparent. Speaking to a friend we might use the nickname, or we might say the ambiguous 'grandma' or we might say 'grandmother on my dad's side' or 'dad's mom'. It really depends on the situation and familiarity and formality.
  - Jensson 3y ago
    There is no "grandmother" in Swedish, you just have mormor and farmor. That makes a huge difference with how you have to use the language, you can't say "do you have a grandparent" since there is no word for grandparent, you will have to say "do you have any mom or father parents".
- eterm 3y ago
  English has "Paternal grandmother" and "Maternal grandmother" for example, it's just not often used and isn't turned into a compound word.
  - eitland 3y ago
    But you wouldn't tell your kid: we are going to visit your paternal grandmother, right? That is the distinction I tried to make above between academic and everyday language.
kawhah 3y ago
English doesn't have any way of distinguishing between my wife's sister, my brother's wife, and my wife's brother's wife. They are all sisters-in-law. But these 3 relationships are very different for many people in practice. My wife's sister grew up with someone I'm very close to and unlike most other relatives I can't usually badmouth her to my wife. My brother's wife is someone who, like my wife, entered as an adult into a family which I and my brother have always been part of and so might feel threatened by our closeness. And my wife's brother's wife is someone who I can bond with over "we both married into this crazy family and are not really like the rest of them". And then from my kid's point of view, not only are these all 'auntie' but so is my very own sister.

Not Armenian, but, e.g., Bulgarian has a distinct name for the relation of two husbands of (not in-law) sisters. In English, that's just one of the "brother in-law" cases. On the whole, Bulgarian has far more such relationship words than English.

eitland 3y ago

I am fairly sure English doesn't have (or at least does not use) separate everyday words for farmor/farfar (fathers mother / fathers mother) or mormor/morfar (same for mothers parents). Sure in academic language there is probably a way to describe it (edit: and the concept is easy to explain) but there is nothing quick that you can use to tell a kid so they immediately know which of the grandparents we are going to visit without naming them or the location they live in somehow? Even among the words that do exist, like "siblings", I have a feeling that in some dialects or sociolects it isn't used and people say "brothers and sisters" instead. (I'm not sure about this last one but I have worked with a lot of English and American people over the years and it does feel this way).

hervature 3y ago
I can't tell if this is serious. I don't even know which language you're using but it is literally no different than mom's mom and dad's mom other than a space.
- eitland 3y ago
  It is Norwegian. And it is serious. And I am not saying the concept doesn't exist, only that as far as I am aware there is no usable everyday word for it. I mean: nobody will tell their kids they are going to visit dads mum and dads dad next week, rather than telling them they are going to visit grandma and granddad "across the country" or something?
  - mjochim 3y ago
    Things like this can be highly family-specific. A friend of mine (German) says that in his family, his grandmothers are distinguished as "Oma" and "Omi". Which are both generic German words for any grandmother, but in his family, they are more specific. Like names. Another friend, they used "Oma" and "Großmutter" (a third generic word) to distinguish the two. So there must certainly be families in the English-speaking world where kids commonly say "dad's dad" and "mom's dad". Even when unlike in Scandinavian languages, it's not the canonical form.
    - msrenee 3y ago
      I think it's more common to call them Grandma and Grandpa Lastname or Grandma Firstname and Grandpa Firstname. I've also seen it where one set of grandparents are Grandma and Grandpa and the other set is Nana and Papa or Mimi and Pop Pop or whatever set of less formal terms they use for the relations. I'm not sure I've met anyone who doesn't have more familiar terms than dad's mom and mom's mom. They're probably out there, but not super common.
  - robertlagrant 3y ago
    "What are you doing this weekend, little Timmy?" "One is repairing to the country where one will be enjoying the company of one's paternal grandmama and grandpapa."
    - flangola7 3y ago
      Repairing?
      - mjochim 3y ago
        Retreating?
      - mtVessel 3y ago
        It's a slightly archaic usage, but it's correct: repair [1] verb repaired; repairing; repairs intransitive verb 1a: to betake oneself : go repaired to the judge's chambers 1b: to come together : rally [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repair https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repair
- throwaway290 3y ago
  The space makes the difference between "word exists" and "word doesn't exist".
  - eitland 3y ago
    I would have accepted it if it was something people would actually say, even if it was written like two words or more. Example: sister/brother in law is something that is close enough even if it isn't written in one word like Norwegian svigerinne/svoger. But as far as I am aware English only uses grandsomething (or variations of it) + further description as needed.
    - afiori 3y ago
      Paternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, maternal grandmother, and maternal grandfather
      - Agentlien 3y ago
        There is a big difference, though. In English you would usually say grandma/grandpa and rarely qualify by on which side. In Swedish and Norwegian you always specify because the words for grandparents are inherent specific to whether they are paternal or maternal.
        afiori 3y ago
        In everyday speech you generally do not try to be this specific, but if you wanted to (e.g. recounting family history to a doctor or talking about the relationship between your parents and granparents) you could use them to be more specific in a clear way. I agree that almost every use of farfar should be simply translated as grandmother.
        throwaway290 3y ago
        Will you be satisfied if your brother or sister were only describable as "sibling"? Would it roll off your tongue? Similarly in many languages using the wildcard equivalent to mean something more specific is unnatural.
- mendigou 3y ago
  The point of the conversation is how people express these relationships in their day-to-day so they can be encoded in software. Would your grandparents' contact be saved on your phone as "Mom's mom" or as "grandma"? Probably the second, which is indistinguishable from "grandma" as "Dad's mom". In Norwegian, people would naturally call these "mormor" and "farmor" and they would expect that relationship to be correctly labeled in their localized app.
  - kalleboo 3y ago
    At least in Swedish, I don't even think there is a generic word for "grandmother", you literally always in every case specify which one it is.
  - hervature 3y ago
    I am fully aware of what the topic is about. I'm just pointing out that the English language and native English speakers definitely use the concept of mom's mom and dad's mom without the needing "official" words like "momdad" and "dadmom" because the person I responded to said > I am fairly sure English doesn't have (or at least does not use) separate everyday words for farmor/farfar. They then said you would need "academic" language to describe mom's mom and dad's mom. That's why I said I could not tell if they were serious. Anyway, I think you would be surprised if you asked English speakers what they call their grandparents. I personally used memere and grandma to distinguish between my mom's mom and my dad's mom. The point I'm making is that not having specific words for these relationships does not make English speakers unaware of the difference.
  - Brybry 3y ago
    For day-to-day familiar conversation we generally use nicknames for grandparents in the US and that's what is in our contact list. There are probably hundreds or thousands of nickname words for grandma based on a variety of cultural backgrounds, family tradition, and mispronunciations by grandchildren. The language we use really depends on setting. In a more formal setting we might say paternal grandmother/grandparent. Speaking to a friend we might use the nickname, or we might say the ambiguous 'grandma' or we might say 'grandmother on my dad's side' or 'dad's mom'. It really depends on the situation and familiarity and formality.
- Jensson 3y ago
  There is no "grandmother" in Swedish, you just have mormor and farmor. That makes a huge difference with how you have to use the language, you can't say "do you have a grandparent" since there is no word for grandparent, you will have to say "do you have any mom or father parents".
eterm 3y ago
English has "Paternal grandmother" and "Maternal grandmother" for example, it's just not often used and isn't turned into a compound word.
- eitland 3y ago
  But you wouldn't tell your kid: we are going to visit your paternal grandmother, right? That is the distinction I tried to make above between academic and everyday language.

kawhah 3y ago

English doesn't have any way of distinguishing between my wife's sister, my brother's wife, and my wife's brother's wife. They are all sisters-in-law. But these 3 relationships are very different for many people in practice. My wife's sister grew up with someone I'm very close to and unlike most other relatives I can't usually badmouth her to my wife. My brother's wife is someone who, like my wife, entered as an adult into a family which I and my brother have always been part of and so might feel threatened by our closeness. And my wife's brother's wife is someone who I can bond with over "we both married into this crazy family and are not really like the rest of them". And then from my kid's point of view, not only are these all 'auntie' but so is my very own sister.