Family Tree (Titus/Dingus)

[Michael Schartau]

Sigvald :-) wrote:

But at that point you Swedes really make it confusing,
by using "Farbror Joakim" and "Farbror Kalle" instead
of "Onkel" as in Norwegian and Danish. In the
Scandinavian languages "Farbror" normally means a
brother of the father so to be correct you should
actually have called them "Morbror Joakim" and
"Morbror Kalle" (brother of the mother) since they
both are the mothers brother of their nephews and
niece.


*****

I think one of the reasons Farbror got stuck in the swedish use is that besides the meaning of fathers brother it also means "kínd elderly man". 
It was not nice to hear a mother telling her child to "tacka farbrorn" in the meaning "Say thank to the man" when you only are 25 years old (as I recall it way back).

/Michael
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