Re: Words for relationships that don't have good analogues in English

On 10/19/07, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
> But so far all I have is a tiny vocabulary for Zireen sexual
> relationships in Yasaro, and these don't go across well in English: ruké
> [z`u_R.ki], jáđi [j\a_F.n_di], and thíla [t_di_F.la]. The typical adult
> Yasaro speaker of breeding age has one ruké and one jáđi. Both could be
> translated "husband" or "wife", and both are long-term stable
> relationships. One prototypical Yasaro family includes two pairs of ruké
> in a jáđi relationship with each other. I.e.
>
>    M - jáđi - F
>    |          |
> ruké       ruké
>    |          |
>    F - jáđi - M
>
> Thíla is a long-term relationship of a more auxiliary nature, and it's
> not uncommon to have more than one of them; they often take the place of
> a ruké or jáđi in their absence. Of course, many other stable family
> arrangements are possible, and there's a whole range of more casual or
> temporary relationships, which can get rather complicated, but I haven't
> really thought much about them.
>
What's the difference between the ruké and jáđi relationships? Are
there situations where the relationships between all four people are
roughly the same? Is there a term for the relationships along the
diagonals of your square -- the M-M and F-F ones?

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