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Total words: 280

I recieved two email requests for help this week. Unfortunately I am incredibly busy and my mind does not want to work in Korean so hopefully the community here will be able to help. The first request comes from Allanon:

I am a college student learning korean. I was looking at some vocabulary and I noticed that there are 5 words for uncle. Some of them are obvious as to when you can use them. Is it normal to use the more generic ones for all
cases? Also do you know why there is the gender distinction between if older brothers and sisters depending on the subjects gender? This is the first language where I have encountered this, and its very interesting to me. Thanks!

The second request is from pentatonika2000 who I believe is a member here:

I understand that a 2-year-old tends to speak in two-word utterances. One word is a “pivot word” and the other word is an “open word.” The child has a collection of few and frequent pivot words and many and infrequent open words.

Research has found this observation to be valid worldwide. The only difference is that 2-year-olds put the pivot word first in some languages and put the loan word first in some languages.

The leading researchers on this have been Noam Chomsky and M. D. S. Braine. The terms are “telegraphic speech” and “pivot grammar.”

I would like to learn about the speech of Korean 2-year-olds, but I don’t know the first thing about conducting a research in Korean publications. How shall I start?

Obviously this second question is more academic in nature. Hopefully someone will be able to help out.

Posted by 王音癡 on Friday Dec 17, 2004 in Korean Writing | |

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트랙백:

Hello! I’m 빠다컵. I understand you having a hard time understanding the term ‘uncle’ in Korean! To be honest, I can’t really explain it. Of my short English knowledge, ‘uncle’ is male siblings of mother and father! But in Korean, this gets a bit complicated. All I can say is that 삼촌(uncle) can be divided into two big categories: one from father side and the other from mother side! Ones from father side (father’s brothers) are called 삼촌 while ones from mother side are called 외삼촌 (외 signifies ones from mother side. Another example is I’d call my grandma and grandfa as 할머니 and 할아버지 while I’d call my grandma-in-law and grandfa-in-law as 외할머니 and 외할아버지). But this does not apply to aunts since father’s sisters are called 고모 while mother’s sisters are called 이모 (confusing, isn’t it? yeah, that’s why I’m not gonna go into the wiives of uncles). So now back to ‘uncle’ thingy, Koreans have very delicate family system becuz we (Koreans) are not familiar with calling relatives by the first names/nick names. There is proper title for everyone depending on how the person is related to me. Unfortunately, since I don’t have much relatives (my father was the only child and my grandfa was the only one. I have tons of relatives on my mother side but I was living so far away from all of them), I never got to learn all those proper titles. Now this is kind of a complex of me cuz I feel like I’m not properly educated! Anyway, so there can be many different titles in Korean for uncle.

For the second part of the question, my answer is “I don’t know why.” Maybe someone who studies Korean knows why. But being a Korean and raised in Korea, this gender distinction came natural to me. I never questioned why. Anyway, just to be sure, here’s a good rule for this gender/age distinction rule:

For a gurl, she would call:

A older female: 언니
A older male: 오빠
Youngsters: just their names or whatever you want to call them to abuse.

For a boy, he would call:

A older female: 누나
A older male: 형
Youngsters: just their names or whatever you want to call them to abuse.

I hope I somehow cleared your confusion. I hope! If not, I’m sure others will help you out!

For the pentatonika2000’s question, I have no idea of what to say!

Posted by 빠다컵 on Friday Dec 17, 2004 at 11:06 PM
5 words?

- 삼촌
- 외삼촌
- 큰 아버지
- 백부
- 작은 아버지
- 숙부
- 이모부
- 고모부

hmmmmmmmmmmmm…

Posted by 마익 on Friday Dec 17, 2004 at 11:44 PM
In addition to the words Mike listed, 아저씨 is also often translated as “uncle.”

Posted by ì œë¹„êµ° on Saturday Dec 18, 2004 at 07:53 AM
Good point, Joel. How could I miss what’s right under my nose!?!?!?

아저씨[명사]
1.아버지와 같은 항렬의 남자를 일컫는 말. [어른이 된, 아버지의 친형제에 대해서는 아버지와의 관계에 따라 ‘큰아버지’ 또는 ‘작은아버지’로 일컬음.]
2.혈연관계가 없는 남자 어른을 친근하게 부르는 말.
¶국군 아저씨./집배원 아저씨. (낮춤말)아재·아재비·아주비.

Posted by ë§ˆì?µ on Sunday Dec 19, 2004 at 02:24 PM
My 2 cents worth :

I do believe it all has to do with the culture.
외 is from Chinese’s 外 and denotes ‘outside; i.e. the paternal relatives relatives are considered ‘insiders’ (for want of a better word), while the maternal relatives are considered more removed.

And while the Korean word for uncle 삼촌 has the word 삼 (three) in it, the word for cousin has 사 (four) in it. This is because uncles are considered 3 levels removed (from you) and their children, therefore, considered 4 levels/steps removed.

Eldest uncle is considered as close as own father, I guess, hence, 큰 아버지 .

Posted by HuangSY on Wednesday Dec 22, 2004 at 09:14 PM
BTW, I thought Q2 was posed at one of the Yahoo Groups for Korean and had been answered there.

Posted by HuangSY on Wednesday Dec 22, 2004 at 09:15 PM
No, it is absoluely wrong and disrespectful if you called your relative by the wrong title, e.g., calling your father’s married younger brother ‘삼촌’ (the correct title is 작은아버지 or if your father has more than one younger brother, say, if the uncle in question was the fourth of 6 boys, he should be called 넷째아버지). You would only call your father’s unmarried brothers 삼촌 or your mother’s unmarried brothers 외삼촌 (it’s 외숙 or 외숙부 once they are married).

There are so many different terms for Uncle in Korean as the person with the first question stated, especially due to the fact that one’s 친가 traditionally considered cousins up to third degrees within the immediate family. Here are the basic ones that everybody should know…

친가 (Father’s Paternal Side)

(1) 큰아버지, K’n Ahbuhji = uncle; father’s eldest brother (if you want to impress your family or friends, you can always REFER, not call, him by 백부, Baek-Bu)

(2) 작은아버지, Jakg’un Ahbuhji = uncle; father’s younger brother (you can refer him by 숙부, Sook-Bu for the same reason as above)

(3) 고숙/고모부, GoSook or Gomo-Bu = uncle; father’s sister’s husband

(4) 큰할아버지, K’n Halahbuhji = great-uncle; grandfather’s eldest brother

(5) 작은할아버지, Jagk’un Halabuhji = great-uncle; grandfather’s younger brother

(6) 왕고모부, Wahng Gomo-Bu = great-uncle; your grandfather’s sister’s husband

(7) 종숙/당숙, Jong-Sook or Dahng-Sook = uncle; a son of (4) or (5). (They would be called your first cousin once removed in the west.)

(8) 내종숙/내당숙, Ne-Jong-Sook or Ne-Dahng-Sook = uncle; a son of your paternal grandfather’s sister (For this guy, you can call him ‘Ahjae’ as well)

(9) 종고모부/당고모부, Jong-Gomo-Bu or Dahng-Gomo-Bu = uncle; a husband of a daughter of (4) or (5)

* You can always call (4) and (5) uncles 종조할아버지, Jongjo Halahbuhji as well because the term refers to brothers of one’s paternal grandfather.

외가 (Mother’s Paternal Side)

(1) 큰외할아버지, K’n Wae-Halahbuhji = great-uncle; your maternal grandfather’s eldest brother

(2) 작은외할아버지, Jagk’un Wae-Halahbuhji = great-uncle; your maternal grandfather’s younger brother

(3) 외삼촌/외숙/외숙부, Wae-Samchon, Wae-Sook, or Wae-Sook-Bu = uncle; your mother’s brother

(4) 이숙/이모부, Yi-Sook or Yimo-Bu = uncle; your mother’s sister’s husband

(5) 외종숙/외당숙, Wae-Jong-Sook or Wae-Dahng-Sook = uncle; a son of (1) or (2)

(6) 외내종숙/외내당숙, Wae-Ne-Jong-Sook or Wae-Ne-Dahng-Sook = uncle; a son of your maternal grandfather’s sister (As it is the same with the uncle in your father’s paternal side, you can call him ‘Ahjae’ as well)

(7) 종이모부/당이모부, Jong-Yimo-Bu or Dahng-Yimo-Bu = uncle; a husband of a daughter of (1) or (2)

*note that you can also call (1) and (2) uncles 외종조할아버지, Wae-Jongjo Halahbuhji meaning your maternal grandfather’s brothers.

Posted by Miryang Bacssi on Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 at 06:20 AM