Newbie here

[Guest thats_my_boy]

Hi

My sister and brother-in-law are in China right now to adopt a little girl. I'm curious if anyone can please tell me how to pronounce "aunt" in CHinese. And if there is a good website where you can hear pronunciations without paying for it. I've had no luck searching.

Thanks so much!

[pazu]

Aunt = 阿姨 ("Ah Yee").

[holyman]

father's sister is gu'ma 姑妈 or gu'gu 姑姑.

mother's sister is yi'ma 姨妈 or a'yi 阿姨.

[Quest]

father's sister is gu'ma 姑妈 or gu'gu 姑姑.

mother's sister is yi'ma 姨妈 or a'yi 阿姨.

father's sister is gu'ma 姑妈(if father is younger) or gu'gu 姑姑(if the sister is younger)

mother's sister is yi'ma 姨妈(if the sister is older) or a'yi 阿姨(if the sister is younger)

[smithsgj]

Even if you're older I'd go with a'yi 阿姨. It's a much more common term of address, used (like auntie sometimes is in the West) to mean a female grown-up familiar to the child.

Do you have friends of Chinese origin? It would be so nice if the little girl could be kept in touch with her cultural/linguistic roots. (I'm sure this is something you would have thought about anyway)

[Quest]

err, you should use 姨妈 if the sister is older than the kid's mother. Calling 姨妈 阿姨 is disrespectful. However, the husband is always 姑丈 or 姨丈。

[smithsgj]

err, disrespectful to who, Quest? To the person who asked the question? But if they knew that then they wouldn't have asked... oh never mind.

Anyway, not in Taiwan. What region are you referring to? In Taiwan you can use either word to refer to a younger or older sister, but 阿姨 is much more common for both. My son has four aunts (!), one younger and three older sisters and they're all 阿姨s.

He actually addresses them 大姨, 二姨, 三姨 and 妹妹姨(!).

阿姨 is used as a generic term for all young to middle-aged women. Any older than that and it's 姨 , any younger and it's 姐姐.

[Quest]

I would have called them 大姨妈, 二姨妈, 三姨妈 and 小姨, and that is the CORRECT way to address them.

Of course, you can call your aunt uncle, or your grandpa daddy, given that they dont mind it. I would think that the person who asked the question would want to learn the correct terms.

[roddy]

I can quite easily see someone getting offended if the term used doesn't fit their percieved place in the family - and as that could easily be aged based, I wouldn't be surprised if someone got offended by being called a 阿姨 when they should be 姨妈 （or whatever - this is one part of vocabulary I've never looked into).

Ayi might be the best 'one-size fits all' solution, but if you need to be a bit more diplomatic or polite, you might want to be more precise.

I also have a friend who's been complaining recently that kids have stopped calling her 大姐 and started calling her 阿姨 - means she's getting old . . .

Roddy

[Quest]

My father and his siblings used to call their father 阿叔 or 老头子, and my grandfather didn't mind, so it was okay. but my father has not taught me to call him 老头子.

[skylee]

Nobody's mentioned 姨姨 (yiyi). This is how my niece calls me.

Last time I was in Seoul, a kid called me "ajima" instead of "agashi". It broke my heart.

[Guest smile]

I can quite easily see someone getting offended if the term used doesn't fit their percieved place in the family - and as that could easily be aged based' date=' I wouldn't be surprised if someone got offended by being called a 阿姨 when they should be 姨妈 （or whatever - this is one part of vocabulary I've never looked into).

Roddy[/quote']

Yes, you are totally right to say that nobody gets offended if called 姨妈 while called 阿姨 instead. But one thing in particular would like to explain is that, if you call somebody 阿姨, that usually means you're no relationship of being relatives; you're just showing your politeness of the female who is older than you. It is just a form of adress. However, 姨妈 actually means sister of one's mother.

[pazu]

Nobody's mentioned 姨姨 (yiyi). This is how my niece calls me.

Last time I was in Seoul' date=' a kid called me "ajima" instead of "agashi". It broke my heart.[/quote']

Thanks for telling me this, Skylee, cuz only now and then I know you're actually an aunt, I thought you were an uncle (when I first saw your name in the LP Thorntree...)~

Haha.

[Tsunku]

We're talking about an adopted baby here, so I don't think anyone's going to be getting too offended if the terms aren't respectful enough in this case anyhow. ;)

[roddy]

Oh, Pazu answered the original question in the first reply - we're just having fun now . . .

Roddy

[Quest]

yea skylee, thought you were an uncle too lol

[Tsunku]

Skylee has always sounded feminine to me!

[Tsunku]

Skylee has always sounded feminine to me!

[pazu]

So should we just start another post (probably in Random Stuff) to discuss why Skylee sounded both musculine and feminine to us?

[Guest thats_my_boy]

No worries! I just wanted to know how to say it. I'm assuming a'yi is the correct term, being as I am the mother's younger sister. Is that correct?