Uniquely Teochew/Minnan Kinship Terms (1)
Chinese languages have a much richer set of vocabulary to refer to family members and relatives when compared to English. It is therefore possible to be much more exact when describing how someone is related to you. For children (and many adults), this makes Chinese New Year and other big family gatherings a challenging memory game. You can even download a smartphone app for looking up the correct kinship term.
Teochew is no exception. In most cases, Teochew kinship terms have direct equivalents in Mandarin, e.g. 阿兄 a1hian1 = ā xiōng (elder brother), 阿妹 a1muê7 = ā mèi (younger sister), but it has some kinship terms that are unique and different from standard Mandarin Chinese.
Equivalents (cognates) of most of these terms are found in other Southern Min languages like Hokkien, with the exception of a1ai5 and a1nê1, both meaning “mother”, which appear to be unique to Teochew.
For more information on how to address people in Teochew, visit our page Terms of Address
阿嬡 a1ai5 • mother • 母親 mǔqīn
阿姈 a1nê1 • mother • 母親 mǔqīn
The Teochew term for “mother” is 阿嬡 a1ai5, sometimes also 阿姈 a1nê1. These are really unique to Teochew, because speakers of Hokkien and related Southern Min languages call their mothers 老母 lāo-bú or similar.
a1ai5 and a1nê1 can be used to address one’s own mother directly in person, and also to refer to them in the third person.
The character 嬡 (女+愛, “woman” radical + “love”) is usually used in the term 令嬡, usually written 令愛 lìngài (Mandarin pronunciation), which is a formal way to refer to someone else’s daughter (“your daughter”). It was likely borrowed to write the Teochew term for “mother”.
In any case, 嬡 is more auspicious than another character used to write this word, 𡟓 (女+哀), which is composed of the “woman” radical plus the character 哀, which usually means “lament, pity”.
What about fathers? They are addressed either as 阿爸 a1ba1 or 阿父 a1bê6. a1bê6 is usually used when referring to a father in the third person.
Posted on 2021-01-13 00:00:00 +0000