Bite-Size Burmese: The Brother from Another Belly

Do you have a brother or sister from another belly? Most of you probably do. The Burmese term အကိုတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ or ညီမတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ , literally brother or sister from another belly, refers to the son or daughter of your uncle or aunt -- in other words, your first cousin. In English, you wouldn't refer to such relatives as your "brother" or "sister," but many Burmese often call them အကို "brother" or ညီမ "sister," opting to drop the qualifier တစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ for "one belly removed" or "one womb away."

Since your first cousins are တစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ "one belly removed," naturally, your second cousins -- related to you by your grandparents' siblinghood -- are referred to as "နှစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ" or "two bellies removed."

The word ဝမ်း for "belly" is often the root word in emotion-related words, such as ဝမ်းသာတယ် (literally, excessive belly) for "to be happy or delighted," and ဝမ်းနည်းတယ် (literally, reduced belly) for "to be unhappy or sad." Then there's the expression တစ်စိတ်တည်းတစ်ဝမ်းတည်း "of a single mind, a single belly" that means "to see things the same way, to share the same view." So if you and your cousin happen be in agreement on something, you could say ကျွန်တော်နဲ့ ကျွန်တော့်အကိုတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲဟာ တစ်စိတ်တည်းတစ်ဝမ်းတည်းပါ "I and my brother from another belly are of the same mind, the same belly" -- an inadvertent self-contradiction that might prompt chuckles from your audience.

For more on these quirky expressions, listen to the latest episode of Bite-Size Burmese. (Illustration AI-generated: Microsoft Image Creator; Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Soundroll, Upbeat.io. With thanks to my Burmese friends Nyunt Wai Moe and Zaw Min Oo for confirming the use of the kinship terms.)

Vocabulary

• အကိုတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ first cousin, older male (older brother, one belly removed)
• ညီမတစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ first cousin, younger female (younger sister, one belly removed)
• အကိုနှစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ second cousin, older male (older brother, two bellies removed)
• ညီမနှစ်ဝမ်းကွဲ second cousin, younger female (younger sister, two bellies removed)
• တစ်စိတ်တည်းတစ်ဝမ်းတည်း of the same view (to be of the same mind, same belly)
• တစ်သွေးတည်းတစ်သားတည်း of the same view (to be of the same blood, the same flesh)
• စိတ်ဝမ်းကွဲတယ် to be in disagreement, to be divided (to be of a different mind and belly)
• သွေးကွဲတယ် to be in disagreement, to be divided (to be of different blood)