Re: All in the Family

on 12/14/06 4:33 AM, KB at khyranleander@YAHOO.COM wrote:

> Here's a question for you folks.  Anyone know of a language that includes
> relational terms defined strictly in terms of distance, not direction?
>
> I mean, lateral terms like "X is mate of Y" is the same as "Y is mate of X",
> and you can write the same thing if you substitute in cousin or sibling in
> English.  But cross-generation terms are all directional:
>
>      "X is older by a generation than Y" = "Y is younger by a generation than
> X"
>      "X is the sibling of a parent of Y" = "Y is a child of a sibling of X".
>      "X is the parent of a mate of Y" = "Y is the mate of a child of X"
>
> I know some languages eliminate some of this, like calling fathers and uncles
> the same thing, etc.  But the ones I've heard of (admittedly, almost a
> negligible sample) seem to require an "older or younger" factor to their terms
> at the least.  While I doubt any would be so dependent on a family tree graph
> as to define terms literally as "seperated vertically one degree and laterally
> one degree", anyone ever define AUNT as the same as NIECE, or SON-IN-LAW the
> same as FATHER-IN-LAW, along those general lines?
>
> KB

Acc. to Wikipedia, Chiricahua does this. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinship_terminology#Identification_of_Alternati
ng_generations (though it doesn't give much detail).

--
Josh Roth

http://fuscian.freespaces.com/

"Farewell, farewell to my beloved language,
Once English, now a vile orangutanguage."
-Ogden Nash