Kinship Terms

This is not an exhaustive list but these seem to be the most commonly heard kin terms. The first word before the slash (/) is Urdu and the second is either an Urdu alternative or Punjabi. Children of parent's siblings are referred to by using the term for their parent plus -zad. So the children of your chacha are your chachazad. Children of your poupi are your poupizad and so on. There is some conflation for cousins with the result that cousins are often referred to as bhai (brother) or bhein (sister). Similarly the terms baba, chacha / mama, lala (father, father's brother and elder brother) are used for more distant kin as well as unrelated men who are of the right age in relation to the speaker. People refer to older women often as massee-ji (mother's sister) and women who are much younger than them as beti (daughter) but seem to avoid addressing women they don't know unless it is unavoidable.


I don't use this diagram or these terms for anything analytical at the moment. I compiled this list only to help me learn the language and help me collect family pedigrees. As I fill in more blanks I may try to compare the Punjabi versus Urdu terms and then compare them to Pushto terms. At present I don't know enough of the purely Punjabi terms to do much with them and I hardly know any Pushto terms. Chances are there will be too many blanks for me to do much comparing since my time here is growing very short.



Kinship Terms

1.EGO (Number 2's khawand=husband)

2. bivi=wife

3. bhein=sister

4. bhai / bra=brother

5. bhai-jan / bra-veel / lala=elder brother

6. appi / ba-ji / burri bhein=elder sister

7. abba / abbu / bap / waled / baba=father

8. ammi / waleda / mã=mother

9. chacha / mama=father's brother

10. poupi=father's sister

11. taya=father's elder brother

12. chachi=father's brother's wife

13. poupa / poupra=father's sister's husband

14. tay=father's elder brother's wife

15. khala / massee=mother's sister

16. mamou=mother's brother
17. khalu / massera=mother's sister's husband

18. mamani / mami=mother's brother's wife

19. dada=father's father

20. dadi=father's mother

21. nana=mother's father

22. nani=mother's mother

23. beta / bacha / putr=son

24. bhaho / naõ=daughter-in-law

25. beti / bachi / tihi=daughter

26. damad / jawantra=son-in-law

27. potra=son's son

28. potri=son's daughter

29. dotra=daughter's son

30. dotri=daughter's daughter

31. bheinouie=sister's husband

32. bobbi=brother's wife

33. sala=wife's brother

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Let me know if you find any mistakes.