Reply… Plz….

The usage is not grammatically correct Arabic but coloquial. Kundarji – (kundara= shoe) shoe repair kahrabji – (kahraba = electricity) electrician makwaji – (makwa = iron) one who irons clothes karakhanji – (karakhana = brothel) basically a pimp or brothel owner

There are many examples. They all seem to indicate a profession except for one that I know and it too is not Arabic in orgin: Brenji – Which is used as adjective to say that something is of good quality. As in ‘the rice is brenji’.

If I may add to your list here, the Arabic equivilants to aunt and uncle are not so elaborate and deliniated as in Hindi but I saw one form used by one of your contributors in Bengali and that I recognized:

Khala: to describe mother’s sister.

We don’t differentiate between older or younger aunts or uncles in Arabic. They are just either maternal or paternal as follows: (examples are in the coloquial)

Maternal aunts : khala or kahlti (my aunt) Maternal uncle : khaal or khali (my uncle) maternal uncle’s wife: mart khaali (mart = wife of)

Paternal aunt; 3amma (the ’3′ sound has no equivalent in English) So just say ‘a’ sound. Paternal uncle: 3amm Paternal uncle’s wife: mart 3ammi

As kids we never referred to elders as Mr or Mrs but as uncle and aunt. Every unrelated male elder was 3amm (paternal uncle) but every unrelated elder female was khala (maternal aunt). I think this stems from the tribal life of the ancient arab tradition. People of tribe were more or less related by family and clan and respect was shown by refering to elders as uncles and aunts.

Reacting to ‘Namesake’ (the movie) which I just watched for the first time last week (rather late, I know), I had this to say about it on my blog:

‘For a character that is so obsessed, tortured and defined by the arbitrariness of names, Gogol Ganguli exhibited absolutely no irony when he advises his future (Caucasian) brother-in-law to address all the sari-clad, middle-aged Bengali women by the generic label “aunty.” “That will keep them happy,” says he non-chalantly. As someone who is on the cusp of being called aunty (even though I don’t feel like an aunty) by hordes of unreflecting kids, I want to officially register in writing my protest at this one-sided and selective understanding of the complexities of personal identity and nomenclature.’

That being said, I am troubled by the fact that my children have to address the parents of their playmates (usually non-desi as we live in a blue collar, ethnically diverse neighbourhood with little desi presence) by their first names. ‘Aunt’ and ‘uncle’ makes those adults uncomfortable. Mr&Mrs So-and-so makes my kids stand apart. But we are going to have to live with that. I want my kids to grow up with an appreciation for inter-generational dynamics.

I am with Pooja on that one!

I grew up using Mami and Aatya for my REAL aunts. But we also use Akka for an “aunt” who’s younger than your mother but still closer in age to her, Didi for an “aunt” who’s younger than your mother but closer in age to you. Both of these applied, in my family, to older female cousins too. Also, we had Paachi for an “aunt” who is older than your mother.

Don’t know if these are the real definitions of the terms, just how they’re use in my family.

Yes, you mean aanti pronounced “andy” of course.

Alternative acceptable catch-all terms are Achayan (for older male relatives) and Kochamma (for older female relatives). Other more specific terms for aunts that I have heard: “Ammamma” (I think that means any aunt on your mom’s side) and “Ammai” (not really sure). Your term of choice depends on if you’re a slightly-anglicized-malayali-from-the-”pind”-trying-to-appear-sophisticated [like my grandparents' generation] or if you’re an anglicized-malayali-pretending-not-to-be [like my parents' generation].

‘Khala’ is Arabic for ‘masi.’ It seems the male/paternal relations terms didn’t really travel from Arabic though (3am or 3amah), neither did grandparent terms or those for brothers and sisters. Abu or Baba for ‘father’ and Ammi for mother are used by many desi Muslims though.

Or Abuji and Ammiji if you’re a Punjabi Muslim. Though those terms are often used for aunts/uncles or grandparents too.

Anyway, here are mine:

Phupho is paternal aunt (though you can also say “bibi” in Pakistani Punjabi; my parents call their paternal aunts bibi and I call them that too). one of my own phuphos, I just call “Aunty” Khala is maternal aunt(though you can say “maasi” in Punjabi too; my parents call their maternal aunts maasi)

Chachi is your chachu’s wife (dad’s younger brother). I call mine “Baji” ’cause she’s young Tayi is your taya’s wife (dad’s older brother). I call mine “tayi ammi” and her husband is called “Taya abu” or “Tayaji”)