For non english speaking families, the lairs of relation have much more detail. In societies that really value age order and seniority very highly, there'll often be a different term for your older brother as compared to your younger brother. For example, you have g or goge. They are often doubled in mandrin, gg d d and may, may, four words, not just two, for brothers and sisters in chinese. It's really one of those things that's marked elanguage all the time. Lane green writes, johnson, our column about language.