Description:

The terms 'noakki' (elder aunt or uncle, literally parent's older sibling), 'noitti' (younger aunt or uncle, parent's younger sibling) and 'no'i' (aunt or uncle in general, mainly applied to fictive kin and as a politeness term) are the words in Common pertaining to one's parent's brothers and sisters.

In Common, there is no usual way to refer to an aunt or uncle without referring to their rank relative to your own parents. Gender prefixes are usually not used, and gender modifiers used as needed. However, all of the possible gender terms are commonly attested.

The practice of using the terms for 'aunt' and 'uncle' to refer to nonrelated adults that parents want their children to regard as being like family was brought to Common by some societies that adopted the laguage and subsequently spread. This usage creates a problem in some cases because of the implication of rank relative to the parents. By the middle modern period, the coinage 'no'i', derived from 'noakki' and 'noitti' with the age-identifying portion removed, was well-established and started to be taken seriously as a normal word.

Today, no'i is commonly used for older fictive kin in this fashion, and as well has become a popular, semi-formal way to address an older person who may or may not outrank you socially and with whom there is usually not a command relationship. It might be used in a customer service relationship in place of 'akki' for an older customer. It is not unheasrd of to use it for actual relations, but very uncommon.

Various 'greats' are derived in the same way as they are for 'onno', grandparent. A great aunt or uncle would be 'akpenoakki' (the eklder form is always used for greats). For greats beyind this, an ordinal number is affixed. So 'kawasakpenoakki' is 'great great aunt or uncle'.