How to understand the brother's wife - who is she to me?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

It is sometimes very difficult to sort out family relationships. It used to be, when huge families in several generations lived under the same roof, it was not difficult to remember who was who and who, because all these tricky terms were constantly heard. In our days, when relatives are sometimes scattered all over the globe and gather together only on the occasion of big events, the words “sister-in-law”, “brother-in-law”, “brother-in-law”, “daughter-in-law”, etc. many of us seem strange and completely incomprehensible. And yet, let's try to restore the names of family ties in our ancestral memory, so that later on we don't have to guess: “My brother's wife - who is she to me?”

How to call your brother's wife

For clarity, let's imagine a specific family, otherwise the infinitely intersecting vectors of kinship may make us dizzy. So, there were two brothers Ivan and Vasily. Both became serious men and got married. Ivan on Marya, and Vasily onDaria. And what do you think that we will need to answer the question, for example, Ivan: "My brother's wife, who is she to me?". Indeed, what does Daria mean to him now?

The older generation would answer this question that such a woman in Russia was most often called a sister-in-law, in some areas - a golden one, and closer to Ukraine she had a different name - a bratova or yatrovka.

Each of the young wives - both Marya and Daria - now have a new relative - a daughter-in-law (that is, they are each other's daughters-in-law or in-laws). By the way, not only the father-in-law and mother-in-law can call them daughters-in-law, but also the husband’s brother (that is, Marya became Vasily’s daughter-in-law, and Daria became Ivan’s), and the whole husband’s family.

Who is the brother's wife from the point of view of his own sister

And in the case when a brother and sister live in a family, will the brother's wife for the sister be called something else? No, nothing new has been invented here - for the sister, her brother's wife will also turn out to be a daughter-in-law or, in a different way, a brother's wife. But this sister herself for the daughter-in-law will already be a sister-in-law. By the way, in some regions she was called "golden" (probably from an excess of feelings!).

It is interesting that in the old days cousins were called "bro" or "brother" (that's where these proud definitions of the 90s come from!), And their wives, respectively, "brothers". That is, finding out: "My brother's wife - who is she to me?" Know that siblings and cousins, as well as their wives, are defined in slightly different terms.

A little more about the husband's family

Deciphering who the brother's wife is, we involuntarily dug deeper, and now we can't help but mention how, after the wedding, Marya or Daria will have to call her husband's brother. For Marya, Vasily (her husband's brother) is a brother-in-law, and, as you understand, Daria can also call Ivan.

But if, for example, the same Daria has her own brother (let's call him Stepan), then for Vasily (Daria's husband) he will be a brother-in-law or a schwager. And the son of Stepan, both for Vasily and for Ivan, will be Shurich. True, the latter term is now considered completely outdated, and almost no one remembers it (but you can demonstrate your erudition!).

Let's add a little about imaginary and real relatives

And if we assume that Marya, Ivan's wife, has a married sister, then for Ivan she will be considered a sister-in-law, and her husband, respectively, a brother-in-law. That is, it turns out that brothers-in-law are family members whose wives are sisters. If we are talking about cousins, then their husbands will be considered cousins-in-law among themselves.

As you can see, having asked the question: "Who is my brother's wife?", we slowly figured out the rest of the relationship. And who knows, maybe this information will help you maintain a warm relationship in a new family. By the way, an interesting experiment conducted by British scientists can serve as a vivid example of this. They gathered previously unfamiliar people into a group, after informing some that they were relatives among themselves. It is interesting that in the future it is these peopleestablished the closest friendly relations among themselves, assuring the researchers that kindred feelings suddenly woke up in them.

A little parting word for those who figured out who the brother's wife is

What is the name of a long line of relatives from the side of the wife and husband, we hope we figured it out. It’s just worth once to draw for yourself at least a primitive scheme of these connections, and at the beginning of your married life it will be an excellent hint and a way to avoid awkward hitches in determining a new relationship. And after some time, you yourself will be able to answer the question of a bewildered newly-made relative with the look of a connoisseur: “My brother’s wife - who is she to me?”.

And you will agree that instead of building a verbal chain like: "my brother's wife's sister", it will be much easier to name the relationship with one term "sister-in-law". In addition, not fully mastering these terms, we also make it difficult for ourselves to perceive literary works (and authors are very fond of using these names of relatives), as well as folklore and even everyday traditions that have come to us from the past.