Someone's father's brother and their mother's brother are both called
uncle in English but in Anishinaabemowin they are called by different words. The father's brother is a
parallel uncle; this is also a
stepfather. There is no simple independent word for this relative. A personal prefix goes with the dependent noun stem
/=mishoomey-/ parallel uncle to make a full word:
-
nimishoome my uncle (parallel uncle) (1s-3s)
-
gimishoome your uncle (parallel uncle) (2s-3s)
-
omishoomeyan h/ uncle (parallel uncle)
- [MN] omishoomeyan h/ uncle (parallel uncle) / uncles (parallel uncles) (3s-3')
- [BL] omishoomeyan h/ uncle (parallel uncle) (3s-3's)
- [BL] omishoomeya’ h/ uncles (parallel uncles) (3s-3'p)
The same words are used for someone's stepfather.
Some basic forms of
omishoomeyan h/ uncle (parallel uncle) are: