Quick answer
To talk about your loved ones, remember baba (“my father / dad”), yemma (“my mother / mom”), gma (“my brother”) and weltma (“my sister”). In these forms of kinship, the link with “me” is already understood: we must not automatically add -iw to them.
10 words to talk about your family in Kabyle
These translations express the person’s relationship to you: “my daughter” and “a girl” are not interchangeable. Kinship terms can also be used to address a relative directly. Context distinguishes talking about “my mother” from calling “Mum!”.
| English | Kabyle |
|---|---|
| My father / dad | baba |
| My mother / mom | yemma |
| My brother | gma |
| My sister | weltma |
| My son | mmi |
| My daughter | yelli |
| My grandfather | jeddi |
| My grandmother | setti |
| My husband | argaz-iw |
| My wife | tameṭṭut-iw |
For "my sister", you may also encounter the spelling ultma . Words for grandparents and some family usage vary: keep the form used in your family and note the relationship it denotes. A variation is not a reason to systematically correct your interlocutor.
Family vocabulary by generation
This card is used to memorize words, without imposing a family model. Choose the people you want to talk about; you can work with imaginary characters.
Grandparents
- jeddi — my grandfather
- setti — my grandmother
Parents and siblings
- baba — my father
- yemma — my mother
- gma — my brother
- weltma — my sister
Children
- mmi — my son
- yelli — my daughter
On a sheet of paper, place three first names then write the word that connects each person to you. Then change the narrator: one person’s father can be another’s grandfather. The exercise is about relationships, not just word recognition.
My mother, your mother, and his or her mother
With these kinship terms, a suffix changes whose relative you mean. For “your mother”, the form depends on whether you are addressing a man or a woman.
| Kabyle | English | To remember |
|---|---|---|
| yemma | My mother. | I'm talking about my own mother. |
| yemma-k | Your mother. | I am speaking to a man. |
| yemma-m | Your mother. | I am speaking to a woman. |
| yemma-s | His or her mother. | The context specifies who it is. |
Compare with tameṭṭut-iw ("my wife"), which does use the suffix -iw . There is therefore not a single recipe to apply to all the words in the table. Memorize each expression with its complete meaning.
Present a photo and remember the words
For a first exercise, point to a person and use a short sentence:
- D baba. — He’s my father.
- D yemma. — She’s my mother.
- D gma. — He’s my brother.
Start by greeting your partner: the guide to greetings in Kabyle gives you a little exchange to repeat. For letters that seem new to you, see the Kabyle alphabet .
Does Gma just mean “brother”?
In the kinship usage presented here, gma means “my brother”. Keep the possessive in your translation.
You are talking to a woman: how do you say “your mother”?
Yemma-m. The form here depends on the woman you are addressing, not on the gender of the word “mother”.
Frequently asked questions about family in Kabyle
How to say mom and dad in Kabyle?
Yemma and baba are common forms for mom and dad. In a sentence where you are talking about your parents, they can correspond to “my mother” and “my father”.
Should these words be written in Tifinagh?
This guide follows the Latin writing of Kabyle. It allows you to practise the word forms presented here without first learning another alphabet. Kabyle is an Amazigh language; words from other Amazigh varieties are not automatically identical.
Sources and usage notes
The following resources allow you to compare vocabulary and usage. The scenes and exercises on this page are suggested for training; the variations in your surroundings remain a useful benchmark.