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Uncle but not a family relative | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 27 24 July 2012 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I also knew a family from New Delhi India whose children addressed me as Auntie.
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 27 24 July 2012 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||
The Swedish word "farbror" ("father's brother"=paternal uncle) can indeed refer to "an old(er) man" (similarly, "tant" means both "aunt" and "an old(er) woman"). I've been called "farbror" at work (by parents talking to their kids). My image of a "farbror" however, is something like this:
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| yong321 Groupie United States yong321.freeshe Joined 5543 days ago 80 posts - 104 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 27 24 July 2012 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
I thought the Russian way of saying "uncle" was as informal as in "cool story, bro". Sorry for my misunderstanding. I'd like to dismiss examples only if it's too informal, or if the title applies to only a very specific person in a specific group (imagine a well respected old man in a church where everyone dearly calls him "Grandpa"). The reason for these dismissals is that in these cases, these family relative names can be used across all cultures, not culturally sensitive or interesting. Thanks for everyone's examples. I think I must say there's nothing absolute, especially the distinction between my case (B) and (C). It's more like a continuing spectrum. One one extreme, a stranger on the bus can be called "uncle" if he, for instance, yields his seat to a little kid, who would say "Thank you, Uncle!". On the other extreme, the man has to have fairly close relationship with the child or his parents to be addressed that way. It's the degree of the closeness, maybe among other factors, that maps into the continuing spectrum. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4930 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 20 of 27 24 July 2012 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was a kid, my whole family went to East Africa as missionaries. There were quite a
few other families there, most from the American South. Within the missionary community every adult was "uncle" or "aunt." I was under the impression that it was sort of a Southern custom for friends of the family. It sort of functioned as a familiar term of respect. The adults didn't want us to call them "Mr." and "Mrs.", but Southerners do tend to stick my using their terms of respect. "Aunt" and "Uncle" sort of filled in the gap between a friend and a respected person. In Kansas, where I live now, the term isn't used in that context. Most adults just pick one side or the other: you call someone "Mr." or "Mrs." (or maybe "Ms.") until they say: "Oh, please just call me Bob/Sarah." It was a bit of an adjustment, coming back. I was neither used to calling anyone Mr. or Mrs. nor calling them just by their first name. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4860 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 21 of 27 24 July 2012 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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In Poland children often call "aunt" or "uncle" friends of their parents or even some people with whom these children have a strong and good contact, but they aren't necessary friends of their parents.
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| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5566 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 22 of 27 24 July 2012 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the day when I was barrister (i.e. trial attorney) I did a case with 15 Sri Lankan
witnesses, none of whom were 'blood' relatives in the western European sense. By day 5 the judge was beginning to pull his hair out when the question asked was: 'and who were you with at the meeting on 12 December' and the answer was 'my uncle' - meaning one of the other parties to the action. In the end the judge had to ban the word 'uncle' and make every one refer to names - which was only marginally better as 4 of the parties had the same name. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 23 of 27 24 July 2012 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was a kid I was taught to refer to all of my mother's friends as aunt and uncle. When I tried to make
my kids call my best friend "aunt Anne" they protested, since she is not a blood relative. It is not common anymore. My Peruvian friend has her children call me "la tita Cristina" , and I love that. She feels like my sister and they feel like my nephew and niece anyhow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4640 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 24 of 27 25 July 2012 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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In Spain children can also address friends of their parents as "tío/tía".
However, "tío, tía" is used by young people in Spain also when speaking to a friend (more or less similar to "dude" or "mate" in English), but this is considered very colloquial. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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