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

*whistle* That is impressive. Reminds me of the line and clan marriage
patterns in /The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress/ -- Heinlein does a good job
of selling line marriage in particular, so much so that I'd really
like to try it if/when the time comes.

On 10/20/07, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
> Kelly Drinkwater wrote:
> > 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?
>
> Ruké tends to be a closer or more primary relationship. In the case of
> the typical two-pair family illustrated above, each pair may share a
> room, and often travel together, while any of the potential male-female
> pairs may get together to have children. In this family pattern, the
> unmarked relationships would be considered "brothers" or "sisters".
>
> Another traditional family pattern involves an endless chain; older
> members retiring on one end, and newer members marrying into the family
> on the other end, where the older members are ruké to the younger ones,
> and the younger ones are jáđi to the older ones.
>
>    >> ruké >>    >> ruké >>    >> ruké >>
> M            F             M             F
>    << jáđi <<    << jáđi <<    << jáđi <<
>
> Then things get complicated if you have branches, irregular numbers, or
> families with same-sex relationships. So there isn't a fixed definition
> of these words that fits in all cases. The only general rule (with only
> rare exceptions) is that everyone involved has at most one ruké and one
> jáđi; any other relationships within the group are thíla. So, in the
> case where all relationships within a group are effectively symmetrical,
> they would all be thíla relationships. Unless there are only three
> members of the family group, in which case other possibilities might
> include:
>
>     >> ruké >>     >> ruké >>         >> ruké >>     >> ruké >>
> F  << jáđi <<  M  << jáđi << F    M  << jáđi <<  F  << jáđi << M
>   \                          /      \                          /
>    \_____>> jáđi >>_________/        \_____>> jáđi >>_________/
>          << ruké <<                        << ruké <<
>