Name ALL the relatives!

[pne]

Sometimes I wish I had more relatives so that, when learning another language’s kinship terms, I can remember them more easily by attaching labels to my own relatives, whose relationships I already know.

Since many languages don’t use the comparatively simple system English does (this entry was prompted by my having suspended the kinship term flashcards in my Klingon Anki deck), but use criteria such as older/younger, female/male, and so on. Typically most visible in words for “uncle/aunt” (for example, I had a farbror and still have several morbrors and mosters, but I have no faster).

Comments

[mummimamma]

Ha! I have the same problem. I just need mother, uncle (morbror), cousin and "dead".

I've never found the term "only child" in any of my textbooks, and older and younger are rarely given too, for some reason, nor have I found "new"-family terms like step-sister, half-brother, step-grandfather.... (or dead). And these are the things my students ask about. Not just the Klingons :p

[sollers]

This is a problem I first encountered when learning Latin, where not only are there very different terms for uncles depending on which side of the family, they had different sorts of relationship with the individual.