How can you recognize if an "uncle" is father's brother or mother's brother? (Is there any "default option"? )

Question

Sometimes the speaker (or author) specifies their meaning for the word "uncle", for example:

The gelding was mine, a gift from a great-uncle on my mother’s side. (Educated by Tara Westover)

But suppose that you read about someone's uncle in a certain text and the writer doesn't mention if the uncle is:

• their father's brother
• or their mother's brother
• or their father's sister's husband
• or their mother's sister's husband

How can you recognize which one is the "uncle"?

Basically, is there any "default option" in the absence of a certain answer?

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PS: In some languages like Albanian, Arabic, Persian, and Polish, unlike the English language, no single inclusive term describing both a person's kinship to their parental male sibling or parental male in-law exists. Instead, there are specific terms describing a person's kinship. For example, the Persian language has a special word for the uncle of the father side (amou-عمو) and the uncle of the mother side (daiyee-دایی)

*This postscript was added after some fine answers had been offered.

Answer 1

You can't. There is no "default". If it's not clearly stated, you have to ask. Generally, if it's not clarified in the text, it's probably not important.

This may seem odd from the point of view of someone coming from a language where the difference is part of the terminology used but as with many familial terms like grandmother/father, cousin, or nephew, only the direct relationship in English is there without adding modifiers.

• My mother's mother -> my grandmother on my mother's side or maternal grandmother
• My father's brother -> my uncle on my father's side or paternal uncle
• My father's brother's son -> my cousin who is the son of my father's brother

It gets a bit wordy but, there you have it. We don't really have a better way of doing it.

When it comes to aunts and uncles by marriage - the spouse of your parent's brother or sister - one might use "uncle-in-law" but (as a native American English speaker) this seems silly and would likely be something I would only do when joking or teasing that person... and it still doesn't solve the problem of whether it's your father's or mother's sibling's spouse.

Answer 2

In English and in other languages, unlike the Arabic language (for example) that has a special word for the uncle of the father side (am- عم) and the uncle of the mother side (khal-خال), there are no special words for distinguishing between these two types of uncles (father and mother sides), but both are simply called uncles.

English is not an exception, I mean, not only many European languages behave the same as English - in this case, even Semitic languages such as: Hebrew, Akaddian, Aramic languages, don't make this distinction. (But a few languages in Europe and many in Asia do, as you can see here in the comments).

When talking about the father's sister's husband, or the mother's sister's husband, then it's the same thing.

You can always differentiate between them by saying directly who are you talking about. For example:

"His father's sister's husband (or paternal uncle / maternal uncle) came to visit him and gave him a present."

Later on, you can mention him as an uncle and it will be understood. Another way is to mention their name with their state in the family and later on just mention their names and it should be clear. This is how it's in fact in literature.

Answer 3

In cultures where the primary¹ language is English (or any other language that does not make this distinction), the distinction is simply not relevant. There are no distinct social functions/roles for those different kinds of uncles (and e.g. also grandfathers), i.e. in general, there is no behaviour expected from/towards one kind of uncle but not the other. This may of course be different in particular families, but there is no overall societal rule about it.

While constructions like "father's sister's husband" or "paternal uncle by marriage" express the technical relationship, they are not commonly used. Rather, to refer to a particular one of their own uncles, most people would probably use uncle + first name (or nickname) or some other characteristic (e.g. place of residence "my uncle from Arizona").

¹ Note that e.g. in India, there are local languages, many of which do distinguish between different kinds of uncles, and English is learned by most as a secondary language.

Answer 4

In some languages, like Hindi, there is a proper distinction between all of them as they all are assigned different names. In Hindi, we have :

'Chacha' or 'Tau' for Father's brother (depending on whether the brother is younger than the father or not)

'Masa' for Mother's sister's husband

'Fufa' for Father's sister's husband

and 'Mama' for mother's brother.

So, the answer basically depends on the language of choice. I am well versed in both English and Hindi and can confirm that this facility is available in the latter but not the former, and find it impossible to distinguish between them if using English.

Answer 5

In Anglophone Canada, it's normal to refer to the father's brother as "funcle", mother's brother as "muncle", father's sister as "faunt" and mother's sister as "maunt". In Francophone Canada, the corresponding terms are "poncle", "moncle", "p'tante" and "m'tante". Although the gender neutral "zbibi" is gaining ground.