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LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

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Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#241

Post by throwaway290 »

afiori wrote: post #199
Agentlien wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#242

Post by joenot443 »

adastra22 wrote: post #183
gweinberg wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about it this way: your brother in law is your child's uncle.

Most languages don’t have a word as generic as “uncle” in this context.

I found it neat to learn that Chinese has 5 separate words for what we in English call Uncle.

1. (father’s older brother) 伯父 [bófù] (位, wèi)

2. (father’s younger brother) 叔父 [shūfù] (位, wèi)

3. (father’s sister’s husband) 姑父 [gūfu] (位, wèi)

4. (mother’s brother) 舅父 [jiùfù] (位, wèi)

5. (mother’s sister’s husband) 姨父 [yífu] (位, wèi)

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#243

Post by conductr »

Jensson wrote: post #170
conductr wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you understand they’re all referring to aunts and uncles of your children

No I didn't understand that, since aunt and uncle doesn't mean that in my language. I thought it was just parents sister and brother, I didn't know that parent in laws were also considered aunts and uncles.

I guess I’m trying to say it doesn’t need a word to understand those are similar positions on a family tree. We happen to have words for that in English but even if you didn’t I’d think you’d realize these people are related to you in similar ways - I could be wrong and that’s not obvious, I figured it would be but I can’t deny my ignorance of how other cultures think about things and how their languages effects that

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#244

Post by InitialLastName »

gorlilla wrote: post #240
Aeolun wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Grouping them all under "Chinese system" is... let's say culturally insensitive. It’s probably the vast majority of people using it though? Simply by virtue of being such a massive country.

What about India? They alone would reduce China from the 'vast' majority[0]. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_...

Is this concept also used in any of the major Indian languages?

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#245

Post by mensetmanusman »

raverbashing wrote: post #197
mensetmanusman wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a modern post Industrial Revolution phenomenon. In the distant past, when you met someone new, they asked who you are in relation to your tribe and family. Now, they ask what you do for the economy as an economic unit. It’s fun to rebel against the current culture by asking someone who they are instead of what they do.

"rebel against the current culture" No, I think it's more fun to rebel against the older culture of inbred villages and oppressive tradition Yes thanks, judge me by what I do, not because some and some other people I barely care about

Hey man, as long as you know what you are rebelling against.

Sometimes it is illuminating to see if you aren’t running into a wall though.

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#246

Post by [deleted] »

mercutio2 wrote: post #86

If you are a native English speaker and are surprised a relationship label might translate with difficulty into another language/culture, consider: Brother-in-law It’s my sibling’s husband, OR my spouse’s brother. In many non-English-speaking cultures, that juxtaposition appears bizarre.

[deleted]

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#247

Post by true_religion »

I translated this into: Matrilineal-descent cousin. As in either the cousin from your mother's line, or the cousin from your aunts on your father's side. In my culture, we have matrilineal decent inheritance so this is person is who inherits your non-personal property. They're one of the most important people in your lives.

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#248

Post by robofanatic »

Jiocus wrote: post #64
robofanatic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even "Uncle". In english, Mom's brother and Dad's brother both are uncles ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Like others noted in the thread about grandparents, in Scandinavia we'd say morbror (mother-brother) and farbror (father-brother). What's fun though is that 'farbror' can also be used (in Swedish) for any neutral/kindly spirited or acquainted old man, so maybe we're not too practical after all.

It's similar in most Indian languages. There are specific words for mom/dad side uncles and aunts. Also most of times same words are used for their friends or any known female/male that is around the same age group as mom/dad.

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#249

Post by afiori »

throwaway290 wrote: post #241
afiori wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 .

I do not undestand how this relates to my comment... I only said that if you wanted to precisely localize mormor to english you could.

Re: LabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter

#250

Post by msrenee »

mjochim wrote: post #193
eitland wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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-speakin…

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.

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