Somali doesn’t have one word for “cousin” — the word depends on which aunt or uncle the cousin belongs to: inaadeer, inaabti, or habarwadaag.
In English, “cousin” covers every child of every aunt and uncle, on either side of the family. Somali is more specific — the word tells you exactly which relative the cousin is descended from.
The three words used are:
– Inaadeer — the child of your adeer (paternal uncle)
– Inaabti — the child of your abti (maternal uncle) or eedo (paternal aunt)
– Habarwadaag — the child of your habaryar (maternal aunt)
So a single Somali word can tell you not just “this is my cousin,” but which side of the family they come from — something English needs a full sentence to explain.
Why Somali makes this distinction
This is part of a wider pattern in Somali family vocabulary: maternal and paternal relatives are named differently throughout, from aunts and uncles down to cousins. It reflects how much weight lineage carries in Somali culture — the word itself carries the family history, not just the relationship.
Related family words
Since cousin terms build directly on the aunt/uncle words, it helps to know those first:
– Abti / Adeer — maternal / paternal uncle
– Habaryar / Eeddo — maternal / paternal aunt
For the full picture of Somali family and kinship terms — including grandparents and a fuller explanation of how the system works — see the complete family words guide (click below).