Vietnamese kinship

[flukedivana]

Hello all, I'm new here.

I am interested in Vietnam kinship and I have so many question to ask. especially, i need an information from native speaker.

These are the questions.

http://upic.me/show/45924966 Kinship chart

- From chart. I saw there are more kinship terms from father side than mother. It's about a society that focuses on men or not ?

- I heard in Vietnam they often used kinship terms as pronoun and main from father side, why ?

- Is it true that Vietnamese society focus on the descent of man is essentially a cousin ? I saw they have some word like Ông nội, Bà nôi which nôi mean inside and Ông ngoai,Bà ngoai which ngoai mean outside.

- Is Kinship term in Vietnamese show position and seniority ?

- Is a conversation in everyday life not necessary to say trai or gái ? example bác trai and bác gái say only bác.

Best Regard

ps.if possible who have reply please send mail to my inbox for an information of native spearker because i need to do a reference. Thanks in advance

ps.2 sorry for my bad english

[JackFrost]

I'm going to give this a shot so you can understand better.

Hello all, I'm new here.

Welcome. Always nice to have fresh blood here.

- From chart. I saw there are more kinship terms from father side than mother. It's about a society that focuses on men or not ?

Indeed, it seems so.

- I heard in Vietnam they often used kinship terms as pronoun and main from father side, why ?

Any noun can be a pronoun in Vietnamese. It's complex, but there are some shortcuts to avoid causing any offence or discomfort. For example, using first names for those of your generation is common, even among friends.

- Is it true that Vietnamese society focus on the descent of man is essentially a cousin ? I saw they have some word like Ông nội, Bà nôi which nôi mean inside and Ông ngoai,Bà ngoai which ngoai mean outside.

Oh, that's the difference between the mother's side the family (maternal; ngoại) and the father's side (paternal; nội). I guess "inside" and "outside" to show that they focus on the importance of the paternal line.

- Is Kinship term in Vietnamese show position and seniority ?

It does. Old vs young, blood vs in-law are factored in to a certain degree. On a further note, it's important to take note that the pronouns vary somewhat according to the speaker's dialect. Even more, the table doesn't show how to call your aunts and uncles who married into the family (non-blood relatives) and it also doesn't show you how to call your cousins. It's a bit different. Would you like me to demonstrate them?

- Is a conversation in everyday life not necessary to say trai or gái ? example bác trai and bác gái say only bác.

Yes, as long as the context is clear because trai and gái means male and female. Might be important since aunts and uncles and children can share the same pronoun such as bác, con, and cháu. Same thing with nội and ngoại, especially if you're talking directly to the addressee. No need to directly call your maternal grandmother bà ngoại. Just bà will do.

ps.if possible who have reply please send mail to my inbox for an information of native spearker because i need to do a reference. Thanks in advance

Sure, abcdeg and Tenebrarum come here once every while, but if you can't really wait, Unilang has a page on Facebook (same name: "Unilang"). You don't have to join, but you can find posts made by Dzwee. He's Tenebrarum and he's on FB daily. Feel free to talk to him and he'll be happy to help you! Plus, it's better to do so since I could be wrong. haha

[Tenebrarum]

Hey flukedivana, JackFrost has answered very well I think. But then again, I'm not sure I understand all of the questions you asked.

From chart. I saw there are more kinship terms from father side than mother. It's about a society that focuses on men or not ?

I disagree with that chart when it comes to the mother's side. I'm taught that mom's older brother is bác, not cậu.

Yes Vietnam is a culture centering heavily on men, just like China, Korea and Japan, but that has nothing to do with the number of pronouns.

ps.if possible who have reply please send mail to my inbox for an information of native spearker because i need to do a reference. Thanks in advance

Feel free to PM me if you need more info on this topic.

If I'm slow to reply, please be patient because I'm in my life-hating mode these days and might not gather enough mental energy.

Or just join the Unilang group on Facebook, yes. It's better there and I'm on there. Reading this forum was taking a toll on my IQ so I had to quit.

[Pangu]

I disagree with that chart when it comes to the mother's side. I'm taught that mom's older brother is bác, not cậu.

I imagine not everyone use the exact same terms for their relatives.

Yes Vietnam is a culture centering heavily on men, just like China, Korea and Japan, but that has nothing to do with the number of pronouns.

I have to point out that almost all cultures in the world are patriarchies. I can't even think of a single major culture off the top of my head that is a matriarchy.

[JackFrost]

I disagree with that chart when it comes to the mother's side. I'm taught that mom's older brother is bác, not cậu.

I imagine not everyone use the exact same terms for their relatives.

Yep. Like, in his dialectal region, mothers aren't called mẹ but má and fathers are called ba, not bố. And grandchildren are called con, not cháu. Same for uncles' and aunts' spouses: mợ, thìm, and dượng as using cô and chú aren't used for them in the South (bác is though). As I said, it can depend on the person's dialect.