Kinship Terms and Hiragana や, ゆ, よ

This week, students learned the terms of family.

In Japanese, the terms of family relationships differ according to whether you are talking about your own family to someone else, or the other person's family.

When talking about your family:

father= chichi
mother=haha

older brother=ani
older sister=ane

younger brother=otooto

younger sister=imooto
grandfather=sofu
grandmother =sobo

uncle=oji

aunt=oba

When talking about another's family:

father=otoosan

mother=okaasan

older brother=oniisan

older sister=oneesan

younger brother=otootosan

younger sister=imootosan

grandfather=ojiisan

grandmother=obaasan

uncle=ojisan

aunt=obasan

How do Japanese people address their family members?

When they address family members OTOOSAN or PAPA (yes, like an English "papa") is used for father, OKAASAN or MAMA for mother, ONIISAN for older brothers, ONEESAN for older sisters and the given names for younger brothers ans younger sisters. PAPA and MAMA are generally used by younger persons. (Yet, my wife, who is not young at all, addresses her parents "PAPA" and "MAMA"! Ha, ha, ha. I have a young wife!, I guess... )

Anyway, Japanese do not use given names for family members older than themselves. Even spouses rarely uses their given names when addressing one another. The interesting point of the kinship address terms is that the viewpoint is usually fixed on the youngest member of the family. For example, it is not uncommon at all for a man with a child to call his wife "OKAASAN"(mother) or MAMA and for his wife to call her husband "OTOOSAN" (father) or PAPA, because their word usage is based on their child's viewpoint.

Also, we covered more hiragana. This week, students learned:

や/YA/, ゆ/YU/ and よ/YO/

The consonant in these syllables is kike the first sound in "yes."

The sound /YI/ and /YE/ do not exist in standard Japanese, yet we spell "Inouye" for Daniel Inouye, US Senator for Hawaii. Why? I don't know...

Have a wonderful weekend!