Australian Aboriginal Kinship - Some Common Kinship Terms Used in Aboriginal English

Some Common Kinship Terms Used in Aboriginal English

The variety of English used by many Australian Aboriginal people employs kinship terms in ways that are based on their equivalents in Australian Aboriginal languages.

• Aunty and uncle are terms of address for older people, to whom the speaker may not be related.
• Brother and sister -- as well as siblings this term is used to refer to children of ones mother's sister and of father's brother (Cousin), just as in many indigenous languages.
• Cousin-brother and cousin-sister are often used to refer to children of ones mother's sister and father's brother.
• Cousin refers to children of ones father's sister and mother's brother, but may be extended to any relative of one's own generation, such as one who might share the same great grandparent as their own great grandparent, which is a second-cousin in Aboriginal terms.
• In south-east Queensland, daughter is used to refer to any woman of one's great-grandparents' generation. This is due to the cyclical nature of traditional kinship systems and mirrors usage in many Australian languages.
• Father and mother include any relative of one's parents' generation, such as uncles, aunts, their own cousins and in-laws.
• Grandfather and grandmother can refer to anyone of one's grandparents' generation. Grandfather can also refer to any respected elderly man, to whom the speaker may not be related.
• Poison refers to a relation one is obligated to avoid. See Mother-in-law language.
• The term second, or little bit in northern Australia, is used with a distant relative who is described using a close kinship term. For example, one's second father or little bit father is a man of one's father's generation not closely related to the speaker. Usually having a "second mother", is having a women of your own mother's generation who seems to act like a mother and would most likely care for you if anything were to happen to your own parents. It is contrasted with close, near or true.
• A skin or skin group are sections which are determined by the skin of a person's parents, and determine who a person is eligible to marry.
• Son can refer to any male of the next generation, such as nephews just as "daughter" can refer to any female of the next generation including nieces.