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Uncle but not a family relative | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| onurdolar Diglot Groupie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4653 days ago 98 posts - 147 votes  Speaks: Turkish*, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 25 of 27 26 July 2012 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
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In Turkish you can address an elderly person as aunt/uncle even if you have just met them. For example when you see an old man trying to cross the street you can say;
Amca, yardım ister misin? "Uncle, do you need help?" Or you can use it to refer someone you know but not really a relative, like owner of the grocery shop in the corner or your neighbour; Git Mehmet Amca'dan iki kilo yoğurt alıver. "Go and buy two kg's of yoghurt from Uncle Mehmet." Ali Amca dün eve gece iki de geldi, bir ton da gürültü yaptı. "Uncle Ali came home at two o'clock last night and made a lot of noise." edit: Few more cultural notes on Turkish; In Turkish we have two words for Uncle which are "Amca" which literally means brother of one's father and "Dayı" brother of one's mother. When adressing your own relative uncle in person you usually just call them Amca/Dayı and not use their names. While addressing people who are non relatives we use term "Amca" with the name like "Mehmet Amca" this way we know he is not really a relative. One can also use "dayı" in such situation like "Mehmet Dayı" however dayı is more commonly associated with people of greater respect (or fear, most bully type people are referred as dayı) So you call your neighbour "Amca" but local mafia "dayı". In females there is a situation as well; we have two terms to define Aunt which are "Teyze" sister of one's mother and "hala" sister of one's father. Here "hala" is never used for non relatives and teyze is used in most cases. There is also "yenge" which means wife of your uncle, which can be used when adressing non relatives if the person is the wife of someone you know. Like "Yenge, Mehmet Amca evde mi?" "Auntie, is Uncle Mehmet at home?" Here yenge means you are not really familiar with the person you are talking to but you are acquitende with her husband. For younger people we also use terms "Abi" and "Abla" which mean older brother and older sister respectively. You can practically call someone you are not acquinted with as "abi" somewhat similar to western usage of "bro". Edited by onurdolar on 27 July 2012 at 1:40pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jsg Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4508 days ago 30 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 26 of 27 26 July 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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In English Canada kids call the friends of their parents Aunt and Uncle quite frequently out of respect. It's quite a common convention.
For example, I have an Uncle Eric and Aunt Anne who aren't related to my parents at all, but if we tried to address them as just Eric or Anne we would be shown severe disapproval from our elders for being rude and disrepectful. Calling them Mr. and Mrs. would also be seens as innapropriate and distancing. We don't call thier children our cousins though. We just treat them as close friends. Edited by jsg on 26 July 2012 at 7:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 27 of 27 23 August 2012 at 1:27am | IP Logged |
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In Hungarian, one sometimes refers to an unrelated but familiar older person with bácsi or néni ("uncle" and "aunt" respectively). In these instances, the title would be preceded by the name (e.g. Ádám bácsi, Éva néni)
I've also observed these titles used by children when talking to their parents about some older stranger or by Hungarian scouts addressing or talking to their leaders (this latter use always seems to come with the name) E.g. Apu, mit csinál az a néni? "Daddy, what's that lady doing?" Sanyi bá', mikor lesz a kirándulás? "Unkie [Scout-leader] Alex, when's the field trip gonna be?" (N.B. bácsi is often shortened to bá') Anyu! Megláttam, hogy a kutya megharapta a bácsit! "Mommy! I saw the dog bite the man!" Zsuzsi néni nem jöhet, mert beteg. "Aunt [Scout-leader] Susie can't come because she's sick." My regular barber was Hungarian and after awhile I started to address him as Feri bácsi rather than just Feri or "Frank" as usual in an English-speaking environment. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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