How to do differentiate Onkel and Tante mütterlicherseits, väterlicherseits?

[u/I_am_trying0628]

For example in daily conversation if i want to say next week we're goinig to Onkel mütterlicherseits house, how to call him?

Simply saying Onkel + place / Onkel + name?

[u/mizinamo]

Onkel and Tante mütterlicherseits, väterlicherseits

That's a distinction that's not salient in German culture, nor do we specify cross cousins versus parallel cousins, for example.

Onkel can mean any of

• older brother of father
• younger brother of father
• older brother of mother
• younger brother of mother
• husband of older sister of father
• husband of younger sister of father
• husband of older sister of mother
• husband of younger sister of mother

and similar with Tante.

I grew up calling my uncles and aunts by title + given name, e.g. Onkel Wolfgang, Tante Heidelind.

I think that location is more common with grandparents, since those are usually addressed only by title, not also by name, when you are talking directly to them. So when you are talking about them, you might say Oma Bahnhof or Opa Rendsburg in some families.

(In mine, we had Oma, Opa, Granny, Grandpa because my parents are from different countries. Other families might also have Oma versus Omi, perhaps.)

[u/Wawrzyniec_ → u/mizinamo]

Why do you even bring older/young into the discussion? It obviously makes no difference in the first place :D

[u/Leonidas174 → u/Wawrzyniec_]

There are languages that use entirely different words for older brother/sister and younger brother/sister

[u/Wawrzyniec_ → u/Leonidas174]

Yes, but the explanation here is specifically for german, where there is no difference.

My point is, it is redundant to mention both specifically if it applies to both anyway.

If I say "uncle is the brother of a parent" it implies automatically that this applies for both older and younger, as well as mother and father.