언니

Korean

Etymology

Unknown. The word is attested for the first time only in dictionaries of colloquial Korean published by Europeans in the 1890s, suggesting that it was a very recent neologism at that point. These dictionaries define the word as referring to any elder sibling of the same gender, instead of the female-exclusive word it is now. A number of etymologies attempt to connect the word to fifteenth-century Middle Korean morphemes, but these are clearly impossible given that none of these morphemes were productive by the late nineteenth century. A connection to Japanese 兄 (ani, “older brother”) is tempting but unlikely, given that there were few linguistic contacts between colloquial Korean and Japanese until the 1900s.

Perhaps the most reasonable hypothesis is the one given by Ito (2020), that it originated from an intentionally childish pronunciation of 형님 (hyeongnim, “older sibling”).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ʌ̹nni]

  • Audio:

    (file)

• Phonetic hangul: [언니]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	eonni
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	eonni
McCune–Reischauer?	ŏnni
Yale Romanization?	enni

Noun

언니 • (eonni)

1. older sister of a female

   Synonym: 엉가 (eongga, southern dialectal)

   Coordinate term: 오빠 (oppa)

2. (women's speech, in informal friendly settings) somewhat older female

   Synonym: 엉가 (eongga, southern dialectal)

   언니는 대학교 다녀요? 저는 아직 중학생인데 […]

   eonni-neun daehakgyo danyeoyo? jeo-neun ajik junghaksaeng'inde [ … ]

   Do you go to university? I'm still a middle schooler […]

3. (dated) elder brother of a male [until 1980s]
4. (South Korean idol fandom) unnie (older female member of an idol group)

   Coordinate terms: 형(兄) (hyeong), 막내 (mangnae)

Usage notes

This term is used as a de facto second-person pronoun by women to address both older sisters and unrelated women of somewhat older age. This is because Korean does not permit the use of true second-person pronouns towards a social superior. See 너#Usage notes for more.

Derived terms

• 언니 라인 (eonni rain)

Descendants

• → English: unnie, unni, eonni, eonnie
• → Japanese: オンニ (onni)
• → Mandarin: 歐尼／欧尼 (ōuní), 歐妮／欧妮 (ōunī)
• → Russian: о́нни (ónni)

See also

• 누나 (nuna, “older sister of a male”)
• 형 (hyeong, “older brother of a male”)
• 동생 (dongsaeng, “younger sibling”)
• 오빠 (oppa, “older brother of a female”)