Quick translation of a Particular Guideline for homosexual relationship terms in Chinese

[superborb]

Since I keep pulling it up, I thought I'd do a quick pinyin-ification / translation of this source https://news.tvbs.com.tw/ttalk/detail/topic/6756. Some caveats here are that it's compiled by a Taiwanese internet person (though this site is a respectable TV channel), so like, this is definitely one person's suggestion. The article itself gives the caveats that as long as both parties feel that it's appropriate there should be no problems. After all, people in real life will use "wrong" titles all the time; the example given in the article is women may "properly" call sister's children 姨甥 (yisheng), but usually 外甥 (waisheng) is now used. There's also, as I've mentioned quite a lot before, a lot of variation especially in the grandparent terms -- the ones used here for grandparent's siblings (not even considering their spouses) are not ones I would use.

Most of these terms are, to my eye, obvious in usage based on existing parallels. However, a few words are non-obvious. In particular, the author points out that words like 姨丈 (yizhang; mother's sister's husband) have a direct parallel in 舅丈 (jiuzhang; mother's brother's husband). However, for 舅媽 (jiuma; mother's brother's wife), 姨媽 (yima) already means mother's sister, so it is not a suitable term for mother's sister's wife. The author found a (somewhat out of use, but still in my dictionary) term of 妗 (jin, mother's brother's wife), so formed the term 姨妗 (yijin; mother's sister's wife).

On the other hand, there's always going to have to be Choices made when developing terms, and this is the most complete one I've seen floating around. If anyone has leads for similar sets of LGBT family terms, I would be happy if you shared!

I'm using pinyin because this is primarily a reference for myself and also do not know other romanization systems. Nothing political is meant. I will space together suggested phrases, use v for ü, NOT use the erhua shortening of -er to -r because ugly, and do number tones only for the term, because lazy. I'm extremely likely to have typoed a tone somewhere, so apologies in advance...

I've also slightly rearranged some of the ordering for clarity in English.

The format I'll use here is:
original chinese text (in trad because I'm copying from the Taiwan source), in the form "description: term"
pinyin directly from text
translation of description: term (without tones)
[empty line]

女兒的妻子：女媳
nver de qizi: nv3xi2
daughter's wife: nvxi

兒子的丈夫：子婿
erzi de zhangfu: zi3xu4
son's husband: zixu

孫女的妻子：孫女媳
sunnv de qizi: sun1nv3xi2
granddaughter's wife: sunnvxi

孫子的丈夫：孫子婿
sunzi de zhangfu: sun1zi3xu4
grandson's husband: sunzixu

姐姐的妻子：姐嫂
jiejie de qizi: jie3sao3 [note: tone sandhi means if you were saying this, it's functionally pronounced jie2sao3]
older sister's wife: jiesao

哥哥的丈夫：兄夫
gege de zhangfu: xiong1fu1
older brother's husband: xiongfu

妹妹的妻子：妹媳
meimei de qizi: mei4xi2
younger sister's wife: meixi

弟弟的丈夫：弟婿
didi de zhangfu: di4xu4
younger brother's husband: dixu

姨(外)甥女的妻子：姨(外)甥女媳
yi(wai)shengnv de qizi: yi2(wai4)sheng1nv3xi2 [note: the author is suggesting yi OR wai. wai is a little more usual in modern day]
sister's daughter's wife: yishengnvxi or waishengnvxi

姨(外)甥子的丈夫：姨(外)甥子婿
yi(wai)shengzi de zhangfu: yi2(wai4)sheng1zi3xu4 [note: the author is suggesting yi OR wai. wai is a little more usual in modern day]
sister's son's husband: yishengzixu or waishengzixu

姪女的妻子：姪女媳
zhinv de qizi: zhi2nv3xi2
brother's daughter's wife: zhinvxi

姪子的丈夫：姪子婿
zhizi de zhangfu: zhi2zixu4 [note: zi takes the neutral tone here]
brother's son's husband: zhizixu

阿姨的妻子：姨妗
aiyi de qizi: yi2jin4
mother's sister's wife: yijin

舅舅的丈夫：舅丈
jiujiu de zhangfu: jiu4zhang4
mother's brother's husband: jiuzhang

姑姑的妻子(父姐妻)：姑姆
gugu de qizi (fujieqi): gu1mu3
father's older sister's wife: gumu

姑姑的妻子(父妹妻)：姑嬸
gugu de qizi (fumeiqi): gu1shen3
father's younger sister's wife: gushen

伯父的丈夫：伯丈
bofu de zhangfu: bo2zhang4
father's older brother's husband: bozhang

叔叔的丈夫：叔丈
shushu de zhangfu: shu1zhang4
father's younger brother's husband: shuzhang

姨婆的妻子：姨妗婆
yipo de qizi: yi2jin4po2
father's mother's sister's wife: yijinpo

舅公的丈夫：舅丈公
jiugong de zhangfu: jiu4zhang4gong1
father's mother's brother's husband: jiuzhanggong

姑婆的妻子(祖父姐妻)：姑姆婆
gupo de qizi(zufu jieqi): gu1mu3po2
father's father's older sister's husband: gumupo

姑婆的妻子(祖父妹妻)：姑嬸婆
gupo de qizi(zufu meiqi): gu1shen3po2
father's father's younger sister's husband: gushenpo

伯公的丈夫：伯丈公
bogong de zhangfu: bo2zhang4gong1
father's father's older brother's husband: bozhanggong

叔公的丈夫：叔丈公
shugong de zhangfu: shu1zhang4gong1
father's father's younger brother's husband: shuzhanggong

大姨(妻姐)的妻子：大姨嫂
dayi(qijie) de qizi: da4yi2sao3
wife's elder sister's wife: dayisao

姨妹(妻妹)的妻子：姨妹婦
yimei(qimei) de qizi: yi2mei4fu4
wife's younger sister's wife: yimeifu

大舅(妻兄)的丈夫：大舅夫
dajiu(qixiong) de zhangfu: da4jiu4fu1
wife's elder brother's husband: dajiufu

舅弟(妻弟)的丈夫：舅弟夫
jiudi(qidi) de zhangfu: jiu4di4fu1
wife's younger brother's husband: jiudifu

姑奶(夫姐)的妻子：姑奶嫂
gunai(fujie) de qizi: gu1nai3sao3
husband's elder sister's wife: gunaisao

小姑(夫妹)的妻子：小姑嬸
xiaogu(fumei) de qizi: xiao3gu1shen3
husband's younger sister's wife: xiaogushen

大伯(夫兄)的丈夫：大伯爺
dabo(fuxiong) de zhangfu: da4bo2ye2
husband's elder brother's husband: daboye

小叔(夫弟)的丈夫：小叔爺
xiaoshu(fudi) de zhangfu: xiao3shu1ye2
husband's younger brother's husband: xiaoshuye

Comments

[rekishi]

Fascinating.

(Also fascinating: I can read some of them. O_O)

I wonder if one could use the uncle calculator and extrapolate from there fore more distant relatives...

husband's younger brother's husband is certainly a mouthful already in English

[superborb]

I've quickly broken a lot of those uncle calculators ahaha. But this one is tricky bc there aren't accepted terms, so the author had made up a bunch of them.

[rekishi]

Yeah sure! And it's pretty cool, thank you for the translation.