# Do any current languages use different words for same sex husband/wife and heterosexual husband/wife **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054 "2019-10-20T22:23:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/1 "2019-10-20T22:23:55Z")
In English, husband means “male member of a married pair” and wife means “Female member of a married pair”. Does any language use different words, depending on same sex or different sex status? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/2 "2019-10-20T23:01:25Z")
_Spouse_ is the English ungendered term for a husband or wife. But in Romance languages like Spanish even the equivalent terms \*conyuge \*or _consorte_ are proceeded by \*el \*or _la_, which identify the gender of the person. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/3 "2019-10-21T00:18:14Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > _Spouse_ is the English ungendered term for a husband or wife. > But in Romance languages like Spanish even the equivalent terms \*conyuge \*or _consorte_ are proceeded by \*el \*or _la_, which identify the gender of the person. The OP’s question was really more like they use el or la depending on the gender of the other spouse not the one the word is applied to. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/4 "2019-10-21T02:33:19Z")
I know there’s a Southeast Asian language (Thai?) that distinguishes aunts and uncles based on a complicated set of rules that depend both on whether it’s your mother’s or father’s sibling, and on which sibling is older (but not on the sex of the aunt/uncle themselves). I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some language whose terms translate as “spouse of a man” and “spouse of a woman”. On the other hand, until very recently, “spouse of a man” and “female spouse” were regarded as exactly synonymous in most languages. So the question is, once the distinction even became possible, which way was it made? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/5 "2019-10-21T02:52:37Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > _Spouse_ is the English ungendered term for a husband or wife. > But in Romance languages like Spanish even the equivalent terms \*conyuge \*or _consorte_ are proceeded by \*el \*or _la_, which identify the gender of the person. Or a possessive article, which don’t. Or, depending on the construction, no article at all. And the masculine forms double up as neuter: _los cónyuges_ or _ambos contrayentes_ can apply to any combination including two lesbians. _Contrayente_ is a person who getting married right then; its use is restricted to the duration and paperwork of the wedding. Also, _consorte_ is not quite equivalent to spouse. It is a dependent spouse, someone who gets their status from their spouse. _La reina consorte_ (the queen-by-marriage), _el duque consorte_ (the duke-by-marriage); curiously enough, [RAE](https://dle.rae.es/?id=AQnYIBO) and I chose the same examples but with opposite genders. While it can be translated as “spouse”, nobody would say _el cocinero se convirtió en el consorte de la camarera_ (the cook became the chambermaid’s consort), but you can say _el futuro Felipe II de España se convirtió en el consorte de María Tudor_ (the future Felipe II of Spain became Mary Tudor’s consort). And back to the OP, Spanish doesn’t work as the OP asks; the different expressions meaning wife, husband or spouse do not differentiate as a function of who the person is married to. Some of them have multiple meanings (woman, lady/lord, rib, other half…) and you need to get the correct one from context. Neither do Catalan or as far as I can tell, Basque (my Basque is barely incipient). ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/6 "2019-10-21T03:09:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I know there’s a Southeast Asian language (Thai?) that distinguishes aunts and uncles based on a complicated set of rules that depend both on whether it’s your mother’s or father’s sibling, and on which sibling is older (but not on the sex of the aunt/uncle themselves). I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some language whose terms translate as “spouse of a man” and “spouse of a woman”. > > On the other hand, until very recently, “spouse of a man” and “female spouse” were regarded as exactly synonymous in most languages. So the question is, once the distinction even became possible, which way was it made? Here’s a couple of videos detailing the various familial titles in Chinese culture. The first is Mandarin and the second is Cantonese. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFRoILS1jY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCFRoILS1jY) & [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HaZ4WLo50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HaZ4WLo50) . A few notes: Carmen doesn’t usually speak that fast, it’s a goof for the video, her pronunciation of both Mandarin and Cantonese is slightly odd, i.e. not Beijing or Hong Kong dialect, probably because she grew up in Australia and no one, except perhaps in formal conversation uses all those honorific titles. As for names for same sex married couples, I’ve heard people mutually refer to each other as their husband or wife. No different than saying you have two Moms or two Dads. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/7 "2019-10-21T04:31:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I know there’s a Southeast Asian language (Thai?) that distinguishes aunts and uncles based on a complicated set of rules that depend both on whether it’s your mother’s or father’s sibling, and on which sibling is older It’s not Southeast Asian, but Hindi definitely has [a slew of vocabulary](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hindi/Family_relations) in this spirit. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/8 "2019-10-21T16:19:36Z")
Thai has two common words for ‘wife’ (/pan-rá-yaa/, /miia/) and two for ‘husband’ (/sǎa-mii/, /pǔua/). BEWARE: The words (/miia/, /pǔua/) are most frequently encountered in rural Thai, but are considered vulgar! Thai has another extremely common word (/fɛɛn/) borrowed from English ‘fan’ (“I am in your fan club!”), which can mean husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/admirer. Two of my informants are unaware of any special words to denote gay partners, but suspect such words do exist. > [@Chronos](#): > > I know there’s a Southeast Asian language (Thai?) that distinguishes aunts and uncles based on a complicated set of rules … Thai has four words to cover the eight cases {Mother,Father}'s {Older,Younger} {Sister,Brother} What’s tricky is that the gender distinction is applied only to the _older_ sibling, so the four words denote the four cases /bpâa/ — Parent’s Older Sister (or wife of older brother) /lung/ — Parent’s Older Brother (or husband of older sister) /náa/ — Mother’s Younger Sibling (or that sibling’s spouse) /aa/ — Father’s Younger Sibling (or that sibling’s spouse) Tedious examples:[SPOILER] The Younger/Older relationship applies only to the sibling connection. Thus, given that A is married to B whose father (C) is the older cousin of Mrs. Septimus, both A and B refer to Mrs. Septimus as /aa/ (Father’s Younger Cousin). They use the same word for me, regardless of whether I’m younger than C or not. I know a woman who follows the rules to call her uncle /aa/. That uncle has an ex-wife whose half-sister is my wife; so she calls me /aa/ also! My daughter’s friends refer to my relatively young wife as /náa/ (Mother’s Younger Sibling}, so use the same word for me even though I’m not young, even relatively. There are no words for great-uncle or great-aunt. My wife’s nephew has a son; he refers to my wife and me with the words for Paternal Grandmother and Paternal Grandfather. [/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-current-languages-use-different-words-for-same-sex-husband-wife-and-heterosexual-husband-wife/842054/9 "2019-10-21T20:07:29Z")
Part 2, Chapter 9 of the Kamasutra begins : “ There are two kinds of eunuchs, those that are disguised as males, and those that are disguised as females. Eunuchs” Since Sir Richard Burton did not have words for homosexuals, he is describing them as Eunuchs. But there are separate Sanskrit words for each - I don’t remember them though and can’t find the Sanskrit version online. These words don’t survive in most Indian languages that I know. Also, I would like to point out that the Hijras of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (erstwhile India) have their secret language (Hijra Farsi) known only to insiders. Cite : [Hijra Farsi - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijra_Farsi) Since they have same sex marriages and relationships, I am sure they have words the OP is looking for. However, You will have to find a willing Hijra to know the words.