Turkish Kinship Terms

Home | Classroom | Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Words | Phrases | Countries | Languages

Phrasebase Archive

Lukas Sunday 28th of August 2005 08:48:31 PM
kinship terms - hello,
I'm very intersted in family systems from all over the world and especially in the terms which designate relationships. I was told that in turkish language there are eleven terms meaning brother. To verify this info I was searching the internet and finally found this site and even a thread concerning kinship terms ([url]http://www.phrasebase.com/forum/read.php?TID=7785[/url]) which I found very interesting and in which were mentioned many turkish kinship terms, but unfortunately it didn't answer my curiosity.
Could anyone tell me whether there are really eleven words meaning brother and whether they have all a different meaning? perhaps older brother, oldest brother, younger/youngest brother or was the person who told me that just making fun of me? are they perhaps ancient terms which aren't in use anymore?
Thanks in advance for your answers.

ayhanbulut Monday 29th of August 2005 01:10:14 AM
- Hi, Lukas.
When I thought about your question, I found about seven of them. There is one feature of Turkish. It has borrowed so many words, phrases even whole sentences mainly form Arabic, Persian and form other languages. Apart from this, some close and remote accents such as Aerbaijani, Uzbek etc., have different words for "brother". If you consider all these, you can reach that number easily. You can find even more, but this woud be a bit exaggeration, I suppose, because they are not common.
The most commonly used ones are as follows:

kardesh : the general word (Turkish has little or no gender differentiating system) for the people whose mother and father are the same.(for both male and female)
agabey : elder brother (abla:elder sister)
abi: colloqual for "agabey"
erkek kardesh : used both for older or younger brother ("erkek" means "male")
aga : in some rural areas it is used for "agabey" (It has got some variations but I don't think it is worth mentioning. Similar pronunciations)
birader : It is a loan word form Persian. Exactly means "brother" and used quite commonly.
kanka : is the abbreviated form of "kan kardeshi" (blood brother)and commonly used meaning "my best friend"

These are the ones I can remember. I don't want to mention other accents like Azerbaijani, because I don't have the competence on them.
I hope it helps you.

Phrasebase Archive
	Lukas	Sunday 28th of August 2005 08:48:31 PM
	kinship terms - hello, I'm very intersted in family systems from all over the world and especially in the terms which designate relationships. I was told that in turkish language there are eleven terms meaning brother. To verify this info I was searching the internet and finally found this site and even a thread concerning kinship terms ([url]http://www.phrasebase.com/forum/read.php?TID=7785[/url]) which I found very interesting and in which were mentioned many turkish kinship terms, but unfortunately it didn't answer my curiosity. Could anyone tell me whether there are really eleven words meaning brother and whether they have all a different meaning? perhaps older brother, oldest brother, younger/youngest brother or was the person who told me that just making fun of me? are they perhaps ancient terms which aren't in use anymore? Thanks in advance for your answers.
	ayhanbulut	Monday 29th of August 2005 01:10:14 AM
	- Hi, Lukas. When I thought about your question, I found about seven of them. There is one feature of Turkish. It has borrowed so many words, phrases even whole sentences mainly form Arabic, Persian and form other languages. Apart from this, some close and remote accents such as Aerbaijani, Uzbek etc., have different words for "brother". If you consider all these, you can reach that number easily. You can find even more, but this woud be a bit exaggeration, I suppose, because they are not common. The most commonly used ones are as follows: kardesh : the general word (Turkish has little or no gender differentiating system) for the people whose mother and father are the same.(for both male and female) agabey : elder brother (abla:elder sister) abi: colloqual for "agabey" erkek kardesh : used both for older or younger brother ("erkek" means "male") aga : in some rural areas it is used for "agabey" (It has got some variations but I don't think it is worth mentioning. Similar pronunciations) birader : It is a loan word form Persian. Exactly means "brother" and used quite commonly. kanka : is the abbreviated form of "kan kardeshi" (blood brother)and commonly used meaning "my best friend" These are the ones I can remember. I don't want to mention other accents like Azerbaijani, because I don't have the competence on them. I hope it helps you.