әбей

A front vowel parallel to Proto-Turkic *apa (“mother, elder sister, aunt”). Front row variant äbey is recent and may have a Mongolian origin. For more see апай (apay).

• IPA^(key): [æˈβɪj], (NW) [æˈbiʲ]
• Hyphenation: ә‧бей

әбей • (əbey)

1. old woman

   Бер ауылда ярлы ғына әбей йәшәгән, аның Йәнтимер исемле 12 йәшле улы булған ти.

   Ber awılda yarlı ğına əbey yəşəgən, anıñ Yəntimer isemle 12 yəşle ulı bulğan ti.

   A rather poor old woman lived in a village; she had a 12-year-old son called Yäntimer.

   (From a fairy-tale)

2. (family term) the elder sister of the speaker's father or mother
3. (Eastern Bashkir, North-Western Bashkir) an address to a woman older than the speaker's mother

• инәй (inəy, “address to a woman older than the speaker's mother”) (Southern Bashkir, Standard)

• Starostin, Sergei, Dybo, Anna, Mudrak, Oleg (2003) “*apa/ *apa”, in Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8)‎^[1], Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill