Forms of Address Within Family Unit

All cultures contain terms to denote family members or next of kin: father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather, and grandmother. Informal equivalents may also be accorded, as in the case of ‘dad’, ‘mom’, ‘auntie’, and ‘granny’. In some cultures, forms of address via kinship terms may even be further divided along the patrilineal and matrilineal line. For example, in the Chinese culture, the address form for father’s older brother is Pofu and for his younger brother is Shushu. On the other hand, maternal uncles are addressed as Jiujiu, or n-jiu, where n represents the birth order of the uncle.

Grandparents are accorded much respect in their respective aboriginal communities.

They are revered for their wisdom and serve as a sort of record keeper of aboriginal history and heritage. One of the Seediq informants, for example, commented that a male elderly in his tribe was particularly respected because of his talent in hunting. Not many existing members today are skilled in traditional hunting and that knowledge would have been lost were it not for the elderly of the tribe. According to the result of the study, all groups adopt general forms to address male and female elderly, which naturally includes grandparents. For instance, in Amis, Akong is the form for male and Ama for female elderly. These terms are borrowings from Taiwanese Southern Min. Moreover, the frequency of Mamo

(“grandmother”), a traditional address form to female elderly, is less than Ama, in Amis. It is observed that only few Bunun and Seediq use Taiwanese kinship terms to address the elderly

and it can be seen as the evidence of showing Ami’s greater exposure to Han culture than Bunun’s and Seediq’s.

Slightly longer in form and more explicit, the Bunun uses Tama hudas (‘father’ +

‘elderly’) and Cina hudas (‘mother’ + ‘elderly’), respectively. In fact, Hudas (‘elderly’) can be used to address all the elderly, while Hudas nanaz (‘elderly’ + ‘male’) and Hudas pingaz (‘elderly’ + ‘female’) are used for respectful introduction. As for Seediq, the form of address for male and female elderly, including grandparents, seemingly accords the other with equal status as one’s parents: Tama rudan (‘father’+ ‘elderly’) and Bubu rudan (‘mother’+

‘elderly’). From a power-distance framework, it is an even more respectful form since the elderly—whether of close acquaintance or strangers—are viewed and treated as one’s own parents.

The results of the comparative study showed that all groups adopt general and specific forms to address close family members. In terms of address to older brothers and sisters, two variant forms exist for Bunun. For example, the general form for older brother and sister is Masituhas in addition to separate forms Tuhas- nanaz and Tuhas- pingaz to refer to older brother and sister, respectively. Here, different contexts dictate use of general or specific form. Bunun prefer to use the general form if they are addressing a sibling directly but specific form if they are, for example, introducing their siblings in front of another person.

In Amis, Kaka is used to refer to an older sibling, male or female, while Safa is used to refer to a young sibling, male or female. When aborigines address young siblings, they prefer to address them with their names directly because they are older than them. Seediq is similar in this way, in that there are specific terms to siblings according to the birth order but there is not in terms of gender (Qbsuran ‘older M/F’ / Swayi ‘younger M/F’). To note, even though

there are words in Seediq to denote kinship, according to the informants, the Seediq people prefer to use Chinese kinship terms to address their family members. For instance, 大哥 da ge (“the oldest brother”) /大姐 da jie (“the oldest sister”) or 二哥 er ge (“the second old brother”) /二姐 er jie (“the second old sister”) can be used to address old siblings based on their birth order. Moreover, in Bunun and Amis, it is observed that the use of Chinese kinship terms to address old siblings is preferred over tribal address forms among young aboriginals.

The influence of Chinese language on the young aborigines is particularly salient as most of them have left their tribes to study or work in cities.

For aunts and uncles, the preferred forms of address are kinship terms in Chinese; e.g., 阿姨 A-yi (“aunt”) or 叔叔 shu-shu (“uncle”), and this phenomenon is evident in Seediq.

Since Bunun do not have specific terms to refer to aunts and uncles, expressions in the form of father / mother + aunt’s / uncle’s names] are adopted to avoid confusion. For instance, a Bunun boy might address his uncle, Laung, as “Dama Laung” if his father is also with him.

Instead of using terms associated with patrilineal and matrilineal lines, Bunun use Dama

“father” and Bubu “mother” to address the male and female relatives. For Yoruba, people who live in the southwestern Nigeria, uncles and aunts, on both paternal and maternal sides, are also called ‘father’ and ‘mother’, respectively (Oyetade, 1995). In contrast to Bunun and Seediq, the Amis address uncles and aunts as Faki (“uncle”) and Fayi (“aunt”), respectively.

Similarly, some Amis also adopt Bunun and Seediq ways of addressing their aunts and uncles according to their habits. In sum, when addressing family members, aboriginals address them with kinship terms to show their respect while addressing younger siblings or next of kin with their names directly to imply close relationship. Table 3 provides some examples of address forms for family members and next of kin.

Table 3. Examples of Address Forms for Family Members and Next of Kin

Dama / Bubu Chinese kinship terms:

哥 ge / 姐 jie

Chinese kinship terms: 阿姨 A-yi /

叔叔 shu-shu

The aforementioned discussions have shown that address form tends to be formal when the addresser and the addressee’s communication are characterized by a bottom-up mode (child to adult) or horizontal mode (sibling to another sibling). That is, the choice of address form also takes into consideration the power differential between the individuals. Especially in the case of former, the use of nicknames may be inappropriate or considered rude and offensive.

However, in a top-down mode of interaction (parent to child), nicknames are common and even endearing. In Taiwan aboriginal cultures, children were often addressed with nicknames by their family member. The terms are sometimes meant for humorous effects. The use of nicknames among Taiwan aborigines will be further discussed in the next chapter.

When a woman is married, she gains not only a new identity, but also a new surname and courtesy title (e.g., Mrs. instead of Miss in English). In the aborigine society, once a woman leaves her family to join her husband, she is part of her husband’s family.

Simultaneously, her husband’s family members also gain new title or role; specifically, the other spouse’s family has acquired the “in-law” status. However, it is observed that

aboriginals use kinship terms to address people with different marital status. For example, aboriginal teenagers would address a 28-year-old married woman as an old sister and a 50-year-old unmarried woman as an aunt. Here, age is a crucial factor that determines the use of forms of address among three groups. Aboriginals use different address forms based on the age difference between them and their addressees. In the case of addressing people who are a little older than them (e.g., people under the age of 30), aboriginals would use kinship terms referring to older brothers and sisters while they address people who older than them by 10 years as uncle or aunt. Some young aboriginal informants would even address a 28-year-old married woman with her name directly.

In Amis, it is notable for the categorization of men into different classes according to their age. The age gap between each person is at least two years to five years. The male elderly is accorded high status in the tribe. When children grow up, they will move up to another age group and increase their tribal status. Therefore, Amis males use different address forms according to the addressee’ s age group. For instance, when meeting two men who are 30- or 35-years-old, the male informants would address them as Kaka (“old brother”) since the age groups of two addressees are not quite higher than theirs. However, the female informants address two men as Faki (“uncle”) because they are 10 years older. Thus, the use of forms of address to males might be different that between males and females in Amis.

In summary, aboriginal address forms show familiarity and deference to the addressees.

Instead of using equivalent terms like Mr., Mrs., and Miss, they prefer to address people with kinship terms to represent the close relationship between them and their addressees without consideration to their marital status. Table 4 summarizes the use of address forms to people of different marital and seniority status.

Table 4. Forms of Address and Marital / Seniority status (Unmarried &