In India, in my language Punjabi, we have different words for Sister of mother S...

glandium · on July 27, 2018

In Japanese, there are also distinctions like these, but only in characters, not words. For example:

- 叔母さん and 伯母さん both read おばさん (obasan) and mean, respectively, younger sister of father or mother and elder sister of father or mother.

- 叔父さん and 伯父さん both read おじさん (ojisan) and mean, respectively, younger brother of father or mother and elder brother of father or mother.

- お母さん and お義母さん both read おかあさん (okaasan) and mean, respectively, mother and mother in law. etc.

yorwba · on July 27, 2018

These distinctions are imported from Chinese, where 叔母 and 伯母 are pronounced differently, although nowadays 婶婶 is much more common than 叔母 and both only refer to the wife of the father's younger brother, while 伯母 is an older brother's wife.

There are many more different terms for various fine distinctions of relatedness, but I only know those I had a need to use, and when I asked a Chinese friend for help, he told me that he can't remember all of them either.

punchclockhero · on July 27, 2018

Nice to learn that Bulgarian is not the only language that is so precise about relations. However, many of these words are disappearing from usage as families get smaller and younger people don't learn them.