Kyrgyz has no umbrella word for “brother”: ага is an older brother, ини a younger one. Sisters are subtler: карындаш is a younger sister when a brother speaks, сиңди when a sister speaks. A sibling in general is бир тууган, literally “of one birth”.
This system is information, not difficulty: naming a person also states their seniority and your relation to them. Turkish has similar logic (abi, abla) but a different set of words. The words are short, stressed on the last syllable: a-GA, i-NI, ka-ryn-DASH, sing-DI.
Бир тууган — “brother or sister”, with no seniority marked. In everyday speech people still usually say ага or ини.
The choice depends on who is speaking: a brother says карындаш, a sister says сиңди. The word itself reveals the speaker's gender.
On the father's side чоң ата and чоң апа (literally “big father”, “big mother”); on the mother's side таята and таэне.
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