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   Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣 (youronlyone@c.im)'s status on Saturday, 09-Sep-2023 16:55:13 JST Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣

   In the local #languages of the #Philippines, we can easily express which order in the siblings we are, but it has always been a challenge to express this in English.

   Examples (Filipino - English):

   “Ako ay ikatlo sa mga magkakapatid.”

   EN: “I am third of the siblings” vs “I am third of four siblings.”

   The problem with the latter translation is “of four” was not stated in the #Filipino #language. The first option is the closest but it sounds weird.

   How about this: “Ako ay pangalawa sa mga babae at pang-apat sa mga magkakapatid.”

   Literal translation: “I am second of the female siblings and fourth of siblings.”

   Maybe a better one is: “I am second female and fourth among us siblings.”

   How is it in your local language? And how would you express it in English?

   @languagelovers @linguistics

   • Embed this notice
     kechpaja (kechpaja@social.kechpaja.com)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:22:23 JST kechpaja

     in reply to

     @youronlyone @languagelovers @linguistics At least in my English variety, that would be naturally expressed as “I am the third-oldest sibling” (or “I am the second-youngest” — if you’re closer to the bottom, it’s more natural to count from the bottom).

     You can also say “second-oldest/second-youngest girl/boy”.

     Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣 repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     GunChleoc (gunchleoc@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:22:49 JST GunChleoc

     in reply to

     • kechpaja

     @kechpaja @youronlyone @languagelovers @linguistics Kinship terminology across languages is an interesting subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology

     It can be difficult translating from English when you don't have enough context to know what the exact relationship is.

   • Embed this notice
     mousebot (mousebot@todon.nl)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:23:16 JST mousebot

     in reply to

     @youronlyone for the first English example, you can just say "I am the third-oldest" (implying child, no need to mention siblings), and if in third-person prose (like a bio), you can say "the third child", or "the third of four children".

   • Embed this notice
     Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣 (youronlyone@c.im)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:26:35 JST Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣

     in reply to

     • kechpaja
     • mousebot

     @kechpaja @mousebot

     Ooh! That's far better! Thank you both! I must remember that sentence construction. ^_^

     -oldest / -youngest

     @languagelovers @linguistics

   • Embed this notice
     Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣 (youronlyone@c.im)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:29:42 JST Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣

     in reply to

     • Indieterminacy

     @indieterminacy OMG. Haha. There are even pronunciations for it. I like how lisp shorten things. ^_^

     @languagelovers @linguistics

   • Embed this notice
     Indieterminacy (indieterminacy@social.coop)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:29:43 JST Indieterminacy

     in reply to

     @youronlyone @languagelovers @linguistics In the programming language #lisp one has the notion of car and cdr:
     https://franz.com/support/documentation/current/ansicl/dictentr/carcdrca.htm

     this could be extended with caaar or cadr to hold such representation

   • Embed this notice
     Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣 (youronlyone@c.im)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Sep-2023 10:34:09 JST Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣

     in reply to

     • GunChleoc
     • kechpaja

     @gunchleoc Thank you very much! I wasn't aware there was a study about it. Very interesting! I've always wondered how it is in different cultures and languages. ^_^

     @kechpaja @languagelovers @linguistics