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Multiple older siblings 2009/1/8 07:33
How does a child address multiple older siblings? For example, if someone has two older brothers, are both brothers addressed as onisan? If so, does this ever cause any confusion?
by Sol  

nicknames 2009/1/8 11:27
Usually there are nicknames.

Let's say Taro is the oldest, Jiro is the second oldest and Saburo is the third oldest son.

Saburo might call the others "Taro-niisan, Jiro-niisan" or "ookii niichan, chiisai niichan" or "niisan, nii-nii" etc. It depends on how you started calling them when you were a baby. Often if the age is closer, they might just call each other by first names, such as "oniisann" for Taro and "Jiro" for Jiro.

In the same sense, grandparents are called differently as well. For example, "Tokyo no ojiichan, Osaka no ojiichan" or "Jii-ji, jitchan" etc.
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