Korean Kinship Terms

Notice

Before moving into the specifics of Kinship terms in Korean, it would be important to understand the complexity and structure of Korean kinship terms, as it brings to light the importance and prevalence of kinship terms in the Korean language.

How is it organized?

The Korean kinship terms are based on the Sudanese system with a variation that occur due to relative age and gender of ego (similar to Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, etc). Due to the already complex nature of the Sudanese system, as well as other unique factors of the Korean kinship system, Korean kinship terms are known by foreign language learners to be “more delicate and sophisticated” and “has a larger range of reference than other languages”. (You 322)

There are four major concepts that help organize Korean kinship terms. These concepts are different than the variations of words that occur due to sex, age, social hierarchy, and closeness.

Consider the following concepts more as groupings or building blocks to the Korean kinship system:

Familial Separation

Familial separation refers to the large division of how people are grouped. These groups are based on what family a person belongs to in respect to ego. 

  1. Firstly, there is the ‘Chin-Jok’ group (literally meaning intimate kin). This group consists of Ego and his/her father’s consanguineal relatives & spouses.
  2. Secondly there is the ‘Uwe-Jok’ group (literally meaning outside kin). This group consists of the mother’s consanguineal relatives & spouses. 
  3. Finally there is the ‘In-Jok’ (literally meaning kin of mate). This group consists of spouse’s consanguineal relatives & spouses.
    • An important distinction is that when a woman is married to family she is excluded from being an ‘In-Jok’ in the perspective of male ego’s family. 

Chon

  1. Chon is the concept of how far away someone is to ‘ego’ based on their connection to their father. Simply put each kinship step that is removed from ‘ego’ is “one chon”.
    • For example, ego’s father would be a ‘one-chon’, then a brother ‘two-chon’, and then an uncle ‘three-chon’.
      • These terms are sometimes used verbatim to describe relationships but often only start from the third-chon onwards.
        • These terms are often added or dropped according to social situations, social hierarchy, or for clarification. 
          • For instance “칠촌 할아버지” (Seventh Chon Grandfather) would be referring to a grandfather who is five kinship steps removed from Ego that is also in ego’s grandfather’s generation. 

Nuclear Terms

  1. Some generations and ‘positions’ in a family are designated with nuclear terms. These terms can help clarify where a person stands in the family, what their relative distance in “chon” is from ego, and what generation said person is from. 
    • Examples of Nuclear Terms:
      • 아버지/어머니: Nuclear terms that alone mean Father/mother, but are used to refer to people in ego’s father or mother’s generation. 
      • 할아버지/할머니: Nuclear terms that alone mean Grandfather/Grandmother, but are used to refer to people in ego’s grandfather or grandmother’s generation/ 
    • Nuclear terms are often combined with the concept of Chon. 
      • For instance “오촌 할머니” (Fifth Chon Grandmother) would be referring to a grandmother who is five kinship steps removed from Ego that is also in ego’s grandmother’s generation. 

Chronological Concept 

  1. The chronological concept is divided into two ways 
    • The descriptive attribution of kun(big) or jageun(small) in order to describe relative age within multiple referred relatives
    • The numerical attributes such as cheotjae(first), deuljae(second), seatjae(third), or etc, which are used in the same way as the aforementioned descriptive attributions, and are often used together.

Types of Derivation 

In Korean kinship terms there are largely five factors that create derivations in how you may address a family member. 

Sex of ‘ego’ 

  1. The sex of ego is probably the most evident and noticeable derivation that exists. 
    • For example, an older male sibling to a male would be hyung, whereas to a female he would be oppa.
    • However, these derivations do not exist for all family members. 

Age Difference

  1. Difference in age is important as covered briefly in the Chronological Concept. However, it also creates distinctions, specifically in siblings.
    • For example, older siblings and younger siblings are not grouped as brother and sister, but rather each has an individual label based on their relative age to ego

Difference in Sex of Referred Person

  1. This derivation is already evident in the Sudanese kinship system. 
    • For example, depending on whether the sibling of Ego is male or female there are different indications. Oppa(older brother) and Noona(older sister) are both older siblings but called differently because of the sex. 

Familial Hierarchy & Closeness (Social Situations)

  1. Social hierarchy and closeness, while two different factors, work on similar terms, hence have been grouped together. This derivation is dependent on whether someone may have lower or higher familial hierarchy or the personal closeness between the two figures.
    • For example, many kinship terms in Korean have an honorific form. The word mother can be said as umma (which is less formal) or as ummuni (the honorific which is quite formal). The less formal version may be used in a one on one situation between two people who are very close, but in a public setting or between less close family members the use of the honorific may be more common.  

Teknonymy

  • Teknonymy is the practice of “addressing an adult not by his or her own name, but by the name of a child, adding the relationship.”
    • For example, many parents may refer to each other as “x’s mom or dad”(x being their child). Or a grandmother of ego may call ego’s mother, as “ego’s mother”
    • There are documented variables of this in Korean which take it to the extreme, for instance calling someone by “x’s mom”, where x is a pet.  
  • The reasons for the use of Teknonymy are vast and wide. Most of them relate to cultural aspects of Korean or practical usage.
    • For instance, in order to form or breaking solidarity among groups or people often 
    • Referring to others by their full name can sometimes be considered rude in Korean culture, so Teknonymy is often used to circumnavigate away from such situations. 
    • If a person is absent it is common to see teknonymical terms used to refer to relatives of the missing person.

Geononymy

  • Geononymy is similar to Teknonymy in the sense that it is the practice of addressing an adult not by his or her name, but by adding a descriptive adjective that is related to their origin or current residence. 
    • For example addressing a certain uncle who lives in Seoul as “Seoul Uncle”.
  • The reasons for Geononymy are less complicated than those of Teknonymy. It is often for more practical purpose for
    • For example, for younger kids, who often have trouble memorizing exact kinship terms or do not see relatives often, prescribing a Geononical term helps them remember and identify relatives 

Now we will talk about Fictive Kinship Terms! Having understood the general Korean Kinship terms we can break down the unique and complicated rules of Korean Fictive Kinship terms:

Fictive Kinship Terms 

  1. For example, There is one other unique aspect of Kinship terms in Korea, the use of fictive kinship terms and how it integrates itself into the proper Korean lexicon.  
    • Fictive Terms in the Korean Lexicon
      • All the terms for siblings are also the general terms to refer to people who are older or younger than you that are not family.
      • The terms grandmother and grandfather can be used to refer to non-family who are in the same generation as ego’s grandmother or grandfather’s generation 
    • Differentiating between whether the use is fictive or not can usually be done when given context. However, there are suffixes such as chin which can indicate that the person being referred to is blood related. 
  2. Fictive Kinship Terms Used Like Slang
    • For instance, the word Oppa has been given a new connotation in the past decade. 
      • While it is originally a term for a female ego to refer to an older brother, or a man who is older than her, but not by too much, it is now used as a term for a female ego to refer to her boyfriend. This word also has begun to carry certain negative connotations because of its over exaggerated use as a fictive kinship term. 
    • The word hyung-nim, the honorific for older brother coming from a male ego, is seen as a term used within gangs by lower subordinates to refer to higher ups. 
    • There are also terms such as eemo (usually meaning aunt) which are used in the service industry for customers to refer to waitresses or waiters. 
      • Many of these terms are often female specific, and do not have male counterparts. 
    • The words eemo (aunt) and samchon (uncle) can also be used to refer to very close family friends who are in the generation of ego’s parents.

Move on to Chinese Kinship Terms.

Citations

Brown, Lucien. “‘Oppa, Hold My Purse:” A Sociocultural Study of Identity and Indexicality in the Perception and Use of Oppa ‘Older Brother’ by Second Language Learners.” The Korean Language in America, vol. 18, 2013, pp. 1–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42922374.

Lee, Kwang-Kyu, and Youngsook Kim Harvey. “Teknonymy and Geononymy in Korean Kinship Terminology.” Ethnology, vol. 12, no. 1, 1973, pp. 31–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773095.

You, Seok-Hoon. “Teaching Korean Kinship Terms to Foreign Learners of Korean Language: Addressing and Referencing.” The Korean Language in America, vol. 7, 2002, pp. 307–329. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42922203.