The more relatives there are, the more difficult it is to get confused in terms of kinship. As long as there are mom and dad and brothers and sisters, everything is simple. But there are grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, husbands, aunts, wives, uncles, their children - all degrees of kinship have their own names.
The terms of kinship of East Slavic origin were formed against the background of the relationship of the Old Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic and Indo-European tribes in the system of chronological layers.
In the course of the development of history, the need for some names of kinship has disappeared. Father's brother (stryjь - strict) and mother's brother (ujь-vui) began to be called by one common term - uncle.
Kinship classification
When defining kinship relations, the concepts of degree are used - connection through birth, the connection of degrees is a line, the origin of connections from one degree is a knee.
The concept of genus includes ascending lines - leading to ancestors, descending lines - children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and side lines - sisters, brothers.
Kinship relationships are blood, inherent (by marriage) and close (unrelated).
Blood relations
Blood relations are the most understandable and do not cause confusion.
The child has a mother and father, brothers and sisters. The parents of the father and mother are called the same grandfather and grandmother (grandmother), the continuation along the ascending line is completed with the prefix pra-. In relation to grandfathers, children are called grandchildren, descending with the prefix "pra".
Brothers and sisters of the parents are called respectively uncle and aunt, their children are cousins and sisters.
The parents' cousins and siblings are called uncle and aunt, the explanation of cousins is not used in everyday life, their children are called second cousins.
According to the tradition coming from the pre-revolutionary society, all brothers and sisters who do not belong to the first degree of kinship can be called in one word - cousins.
Children of brothers and sisters have the same name, nephews, although the ancient Slavs used the terms netiy (nephew) and nesta (niece).
Relatives by marriage
The term spouse is used only by strangers and relatives. The use of the term "spouse", "spouse" in relation to one's own husband or wife is not accepted.
The husband's parents in relation to his wife are called father-in-law and mother-in-law, the wife's parents in relation to her husband are called father-in-law and mother-in-law. Parents are named among themselves - matchmakers. The son's wife is the daughter-in-law for the father-in-law, the daughter-in-law for the rest of the family, the husband of the daughter is the son-in-law for all the daughter's relatives.
The problem may arise with the siblings of the spouses. Here you have to remember. The brother of the wife is the brother-in-law, the sister of the wife is the sister-in-law. The husband's brother is a brother-in-law, the husband's sister is a sister-in-law, in order to be better remembered, you can use the psychological popular characteristic - four brothers-in-law are better than one sister-in-law.
An unrelated close relationship
The godmother and godfather are called godparents. There are dialect names - koka, lelka.
Godparents in relation to each other and in relation to the parents of the godson are godfathers. Nepotism as a degree of kinship was recognized on an equal basis with blood, godfathers were forbidden to enter into marriage.
