In the
lineal kinship
Eskimo kinship or Inuit kinship is a category of kinship used to define family organization in anthropology. Identified by Lewis Henry Morgan in his 1871 work ''Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family'', the Eskimo system was o ...
system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's
sibling
A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child.
While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separa ...
or
sibling-in-law
A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.Cambridge Dictionaries Online.Family: non-blood relations.
More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referre ...
. The
converse relation
In mathematics, the converse relation, or transpose, of a binary relation is the relation that occurs when the order of the elements is switched in the relation. For example, the converse of the relation 'child of' is the relation 'parent&n ...
ship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of an
aunt
An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refer ...
or
uncle
An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an uncle is an aunt, and the reciprocal relat ...
. A niece is female and a nephew is male. The term nibling has been used in place of the common, gender-specific terms in some specialist literature.
As aunt/uncle and niece/nephew are separated by one generation, they are an example of a
second-degree relationship. They are 25%
related by blood.
Lexicology
The word nephew is derived from the
French word ''neveu'' which is derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''nepos''. The term ''nepotism'', meaning familial loyalty, is derived from this Latin term. ''Niece'' entered
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
from the
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
word ''nece'', which also derives from Latin ''nepotem''. The word ''nibling'' is a
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
suggested by
Samuel Martin (linguist), Samuel Martin in 1951 as a cover term for "nephew or niece"; it is not common outside of specialist literature.
Sometimes in discussions involving analytic material or in abstract literature, terms such as ''male nibling'' and ''female nibling'' are preferred to describe nephews and nieces respectively. Terms such as ''nibling'' are also sometimes viewed as a gender-neutral alternative to terms which may be viewed as perpetuating the overgenderization of the English language.
These French-derived terms displaced the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
''nyfte, nift, nifte'', from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''nift'', from
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...
*''niftiz'' (“niece”); and the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
''neve, neave'', from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''nefa'', from
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...
*''nefô'' (“nephew”).
Culture
Traditionally, a nephew was the logical recipient of his uncle's
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...
if the latter did not have a successor. A nephew might have more rights of inheritance than the uncle's daughter.
In social environments that lacked a stable home or environments such as refugee situations, uncles and fathers would equally be assigned responsibility for their sons and nephews.
Among parents, some cultures have assigned equal status in their social status to daughters and nieces. This is, for instance, the case in Indian communities in
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
, and the Thai
Nakhon Phanom Province, where the transfer of cultural knowledge such as weaving was distributed equally among daughters, nieces and nieces-in-law by the Tai So community, and some
Garifuna people
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian ...
that would transmit languages to their nieces. In some proselytizing communities the term ''niece'' was informally extended to include non-related younger female community members as a form of endearment. Among some tribes in Manus Province of Papua New Guinea, women's roles as sisters, daughters and nieces may have taken precedence over their marital status in social importance.
Additional terms
* A grandnephew or grandniece is the grandson or granddaughter of one's sibling. Also called great-nephew / great-niece.
* A half-niece or half-nephew is the child of one's half-sibling,
related by 12.5%.
In some cultures and family traditions, it is common to refer to
cousins
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
with one or more removals to a newer generation using some form of the word niece or nephew. For more information see
cousin
Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Dictionary.com, "nephew,"in Dictionary.com Unabridged. Source location: Random House, Inc. Available
Dictionary.com Is The World’s Favorite Online Dictionary Retrieved: January 1, 2011
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Family
Sibling