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

Hard one.
Auleri live and mate communally and are exclusively hetty. Marriage (in the
sense of "one male, one female, producing offspring") is practiced,
according to tradition, solely among the royal houses ("elama"). It's
generally held to be a duty, and an onerous one at that. The royals make the
best of a bad job. While "mar-u" means "mother", Aito "father" in practice
refers to any male of suitable age in the "arema" (think Indonesian / Viking
longhouse). "Brother/Sister" only has meaning in the sense of twins. The
importance of twins - not identical twins, but a boy and a girl born
together - in Auleri culture / legend is overwhelming and deep-rooted, but
otherwise IE kinship terms are pretty meaningless to them.
A relationship with another conlanger? Imagine the arguments...
Kau pu?umlakpekuy! ("you never take me anywhere", their conlang)
Mtlaq' plaa qynuuep klo! ("you never ask", your conlang)
?apumkek! ("you're impossible!", their conlang)
Laq emgo! ("So are you", your conlang)...
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sai Emrys" <sai@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: Words for relationships that don't have good analogues in
English


On 10/17/07, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> On 10/17/07, Sai Emrys <sai@...> wrote:
> > (Why do I ask? I'm in a new relationship [whee!], with a conlanger no
> > less,
>
> A relationship with a conlanger?! What were you thinking?!  You're
> supposed to find someone who will pull you back to reality every once
> in a while, not dive in with you!!
You are‽‽

But, but... it's so much more fun to have someone to dive with. :)

(Besides, my other relationship is with a non-conlanging hacker. So I
suppose each can pull me back to their own 'reality' every so often?
Personally I rather like having a multiplexed one...)

> (Congratulations!)
(Thanks!)

On 10/17/07, Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:
> Mostly along the hetero/homo divide:
What motivates this? The terms from either side seem to be only
moderately related; what're the derivations?

Why did you decide to have that sort of divide, rather than a purely
gendered one as in English (e.g. a gay male married couple still call
each other 'husband').

> díbs  king (regnant)
> fsebs  king (his homo consort)
> merens  queen (his hetero consort)
> öns  queen (regnant)
> ats  queen (her lesbian consort)
> çürs  king (her hetero consort)
What's the difference between díbs/fsebs, öns/ats? Power?

> "paramour" would be a cool word to develop.
It's fairly loaded with connotation. ;)

> I'd've thought I had a word for "marry," but no, just "be married" which
> is
>
> sau zdarsölíörasaub shut kízgalezh
>
> kindasorta "walk along with a spouse"
/me giggles a bit

Neat.

> It occurs to me that these terms seem to describe as their parameters
> serial monogamy. If that's not your bag, I'm afraid you'll have to wait
> for Géarthnuns to catch up.
*shrug* I'm not a monogamist, serial or otherwise, but I'm not opposed. :)

- Sai


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