English kinship terms, although not completely transparent even to those who grew up using them, lack the complexity found in many other language systems. English speakers might struggle to determine whether someone is a cousin once removed or a second cousin, but we don't have to think twice about what the title is for a parent's sister. It doesn't matter if the parent is the father or the mother: the name is the same: 'aunt'. In Latin, we would have to know whether the aunt is on the father's side, an amita, or on the mother's, a matertera.

This is not restricted to kinship terms. In terms of the sounds a language makes, there is a compromise made between ease of articulation and ease of understanding. In the realm of vocabulary, the ease might be the ease of memorizing a small number of specialized terms vs the need of others to know to whom you're referring. Sibling is more general than sister or brother. In English, we have both, but only those. In other languages, there might be a term for an older sister or younger brother and maybe none for a sibling, which could be considered too general to be useful.

For those who grew up speaking, for instance, Farsi or Hindi, this list may seem as it should be, but for us English speakers, it may take some time.

soror, sororis, f. sister

sister frater, fratris, m. brother

brother mater, matris, f. mother

mother pater, patris, m. father

father avia, -ae, f. grandmother

grandmother avus, -i, m. grandfather

grandfather proavia, -ae, f. great-grandmother

great-grandmother proavus, -i, m. great-grandfather

great-grandfather abavia, f. great-great-grandmother

great-great-grandmother abavus, m. great-great-grandfather

great-great-grandfather atavia, f. great-great-great-grandmother

great-great-great-grandmother atavus, m. great-great-great-grandfather

great-great-great-grandfather noverca, -ae. f. stepmother

stepmother vitricus, -, m. stepfather

stepfather patruus, -i, m. paternal uncle

paternal uncle patruus magnus, m. paternal great-uncle

paternal great-uncle propatruus, m. paternal great-great uncle

paternal great-great uncle avunculus, -i, m. maternal uncle

maternal uncle avunculus magnus, m. maternal great-uncle

maternal great-uncle proavunculus, m. maternal great-great uncle

maternal great-great uncle amita, -ae, f. paternal aunt

paternal aunt amita magna, f. paternal great aunt

paternal great aunt proamita, f. paternal great-great aunt

paternal great-great aunt matertera, -ae, f. maternal aunt

maternal aunt matertera magna, f. maternal great-aunt

maternal great-aunt promatertera, f. maternal great-great-aunt

maternal great-great-aunt patruelis, -is, m./f. paternal cousin

paternal cousin sobrinus, -i, m. maternal boy cousin

maternal boy cousin sobrina, -ae, f. maternal girl cousin

maternal girl cousin vitrici filius/filia, m./f. paternal step-sibling

paternal step-sibling ﻿novercae filius/filia, m./f. maternal step-sibling

maternal step-sibling filius, -i, m. son

son filia, -ae. f. daughter

daughter privignus, -i, m. stepson

stepson privigna, -ae, f. stepdaughter

stepdaughter nepos, nepotis, m. grandson

grandson neptis, neptis, f. grand-daughter

grand-daughter abnepos/abneptis, m./f. great-grandson/great-granddaughter

great-grandson/great-granddaughter adnepos/adneptis, m./f. great-great-grandso/great-great-granddaughter

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