Italian 30 day challenge! #9🇮🇹
La famiglia più vicina (The closest family)
No, it’s not i parenti, we get to them later.
Italian offers both formal and informal means of addressing i genitori (parents):
la madre (mother) e il padre (father)
and
la mamma (mum) e il papà (dad)
However, il papà /paˈpa/ ≠ il Papa /ˈpapa/ (the pope!), we certainly wouldn’t want to confuse them!
Il babbo /ˈbab.bo/ ⟶ i babbi (regional, used mainly in the Tuscany) means daddy as well. Polish baba /ˈbaba/ is sometimes used as a diminutive of babka or babcia (grandma or granny). We wouldn’t want to confuse it either.
On a side note: Babbo Natale = Father Christmas.
Let’s talk about our fratelli (siblings or brothers)! We can have:
la sorella /soˈrɛlla/ ⟶ le sorelle (sister)
Io ho una sorella minore / maggiore. (I have a younger / older sister.)
Ola è come una sorella per me. (Ola is like a sister to me.) La mia migliore amica dell'infanzia. (My best friend from childhood)
il fratello /fraˈtɛllo/ ⟶ i fratelli (brother)
Lui ha un fratello e due sorelle. (He has a brother and two sisters.)
Grandparents and grandchildren
Who else, if not our beloved i nonni (grandparents) could spoil us (ci viziano)?
il nonno /ˈnɔnno/ / nonnino - grandfather/ grandpa
Ho gli occhi di mio nonno. (I have my grandfather’s eyes.)
la nonna / nonnina - grandmother / grandma
Nonnina, lei ci vizia troppo! (Granny, you spoil us too much!)
us, i nipoti /niˈpo.te/ (grandchildren)
il/la nipote
Avrò tanti nipotini da amare e viziare.
(I will have so many grandchildren to love and spoil).
however, diminutive forms are bit more tricky:
Since we’re at il nipote, is a classificatory term (in opposition to descriptive terms indicating precisely a specific relationship) - it has broader meaning, also connected with relationships.
(nephlings or cousins and aunts with uncles if you prefer it that way)
There are many system of kinship classification. Polish language is in a grup of most descriptive ones, closely after Sudanese kinship (⇒ 8 possible terms for cousins; we collapse mother’s sister and father’s sister into the same term of “aunt” and further collapse the offspring of the aunts into one term ⇒ 6 terms for cousins).
il nipote can also mean nephew or niece (a nibling)
(polish: cioteczny/wujeczny/stryjeczny brat/siostra
obs. pociotek/pociotka)
gli zii (uncle and aunt or piblings)
(polish: wujostwo)
lo zio /ˈtsio/ ⟶ gli zii (uncle)
(polish: wuj, stryj and obs. pociot = cieciec , naciot = posiół )
zio d'America (rich uncle)
la zia /ˈtsia/ ⟶ le zie (aunt)
(polish: ciotka and obs. ciota , sioła )
Ho una zia a Varsavia. (I have an aunt in Warsaw.)
fun fact: if you say fast: zio zia /ˈtsioˈtsia/ you’ll get slightly childish pronunciation of polish auntie - ciocia /ˈt͡ɕɔ.t͡ɕa/
no, it’s not from Italian; it’s from proto-Slavic. *tetъka *tetka
On a side note: Are you familiar with the term nepotism? It comes from Italian word nepotismo, which has Latin roots (nepos meaning nephew).
Le cuginanza /ku.ʤi.ˈnan.ʦa/ (cousinship) :
il cugino /ku.ˈʤi.no/ ⟶ i cugini
la cugina /ku.ˈʤi.na/ ⟶ le cugine
Devono essere la cugina Anna e il cugino Michele.
(This must be cousin Anna and cousin Michel)
Tu sei uno dei cugini ritardati?
(Are you one of the retarded cousins?)
Ho un sacco di cugini.
(I have a lot of cousins)
In Italian the latter has a pejorative meaning.
spaventosa progenie (hideous progeny)
Non ho figli e sono infelice. No, no, sto solo scherzando.
la famiglia più lontana (the distant family)
i parenti (relatives)
è un mio parente (he’s a relative of mine)
il / la bisnonno (great-grandfather / grandmother)
i miei bisnonni (my great-grandparents)
il / la pronipote (great-grandchild, great-grandson / granddaughter)
pronipoti (descendants)
Mia nonna ha non meno di dieci nipoti, e tre pronipoti. Lei è la bisnonna.
Terminologia pokrewieństwa i powinowactwa
