The Japanese word for “niece” is mei. So let’s say my niece is Suta. Would I address her as Suta-chan (leaving out the mei)? Or Suta-mei? Or Suta-mei-chan?
Suta-chan. Mei means “niece,” but it is a noun, not something you attach to a person’s name like a title or suffix.
How old is your neice? I know no Japanese but I was just talking to a friend who lives there. He was saying that if you use chan on any kid basically older than a toddler it might incur some major eye rolling.
I have no Japanese niblings, I was just asking academically because I’m interested in the concept of honorifics (which are largely absent from English).
What I learned from living in Japan was this:
Girls:
Until ~puberty, she is Name-chan
After ~puberty, she is Name-san
Boys:
Until ~preschool age, he is Name-chan
Between ~preschool age and ~puberty, he is Name-kun*
After ~puberty, he is Name-san
*I’ve heard that men and boys can address younger men/boys as Name-kun, but you do so at your peril. Also, the family I worked for was friends with a family that had a preschool aged boy. I called him Ryo-chan until one day when is mother told me specifically that he was now Ryo-kun until further notice.
Interesting, I’m talking from a position of complete ignorance. But my friend has a daughter not a son, so maybe this has become more gender neutral in recent years (he’s living in Tokyo and him and his wife moved there from San Francisco, so are very up-to-date in terms of gender neutral language)
Name-kun is also used but you have to know them, not some kid in the street.
" 'Sup, Mei-chan?"
Joking aside, is that an acceptable thing?
I have a handful of nieces, and I address each of them as “Favorite Niece.” I see Kady, I say “Hi Favorite Niece!” I see Olivia, and I say “What’s up, Favorite Niece!”
Mister, Miss, Doctor, General…
Does the Japanese language use different words based on the type of niece? Like distinguishing the daughter of your husband’s brother vs the daughter of your sister, etc? (Asking because Korean does so.)
As people referred to above, it really is going to depend on how long you have known them. If they were close to you their whole life, it would probably be by their diminutive (chan/kun), or their actual name without an honorific. I can’t think of any situation where you would call them name+niece.
I have a friend that is in his twenties that everyone refers to a name+kun, because they knew him since he was a kid. He is married and not a kid any more, but we still refer to him by kun, It did not automatically change when he became of age.
While Japanese does have different words based on age and gender, for example you can’t just say brother, you use the word for either older brother or younger brother, they don’t as far as I know have words depending on the parentage of the person in relation to you. Of course you have words for in-laws, etc, but niece or nephew are the same regardless of who their parent is.
The one family link word I have always found interesting is cousin, which is pronounced the same regardless of if they are male or female, but the kanji is different.
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