#(the branches collapsed pretty quick tho so there went that i guess)

[rongzhi]

Hey i just wanted to ask something about Chinese language (not sure which dialect/language you use/are familiar with)—do you use terms or are there terms for family members based on birth order? Specific terms for "second eldest brother", or "third uncle on mom's side" or "fourth aunt on dad's side"?

In my family, the Hokkien we use has terms like that. I tried looking it up for etymology reasons but it seems other Chinese dialects/languages don't have it, and I was wondering if those terms came from another culture (we're SEA diaspora) or if it's something that had been preserved from older Chinese languages.

Yes, in mandarin, there are pretty specific terms for family members just like in Hokkien I suppose. My understanding is that Hokkien and some other dialects are descended from Old Chinese, so I suppose it would make sense that a lot of family terms would have already been set, and that's why we all have such specific terminology.

For Mandarin, using your examples:

second oldest brother ... 二哥

Third uncle on mom's side ... 三舅

fourth aunt on dad's side ... it would depend on if the aunt is the dad's fourth older or younger sister and where in that lineup she is. 姑姑/姑妈/姑母/嫲嫲/嬷嬷 (regional variances) would be his older sister and 姑姐/姑姑 (regional variances) would be his younger sister.

There are regional variances, but you can go pretty far out with this stuff, e.g, paternal grandfather's older brother is 伯公, or 外曾外祖母 is your maternal grandmother's mother. If there are multiple of something, you just count them off by number with the oldest being 大-whatever (e.g, 大姑妈 = oldest of your dad's older sisters) and the youngest being 小 （e.g, 小姨 = mom's youngest sister)

All your maternal cousins are 表 and all your paternal cousins are 堂. Your maternal ancestors are 外/曾外, and your paternal ancestors are 祖/曾祖. For great-great-grandwhatevers you stick a 高 in there. E.g: 高祖母 would be your great-great-grandmother (on your dad's side). Your grand-descendants are all 孙-something or other, e.g, 侄孙 (grandnephew).

you can find some terms here. there are a lot of regional variances in terminology, though, and there are varying levels of formality. a lot of people might not even have some of these relatives so there's no need to remember all of them.