Re: Kinship terminology

On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Nik wrote:

> "H. S. Teoh" wrote:
>
> > IMHO, the English system is the best. The fact that you acknowledge a
> > relative by calling them aunt/uncle/cousin/whatever is, IMHO, sufficient
> > to show them the respect due.
>
> Well, I still think there should be at least an optional way of
> distinguishing blood-relatives from marriage-relatives.
But the identity of blood relatives varies from culture to culture. In
a culture where cross-cousin marriage is tolerated or even encouraged,
FaSiSo, FaSiDa, MoBrSo, and MoBrDa are not blood relatives, even
though in English these relations get lumped together with FaBrSo,
FaBrDa, MoSiSo, and MoSiDa as "cousins", and are therefore considered
blood relatives by English speakers. In fact, it is often the case
that the same term is used for parallel-cousins and siblings. Blood
relations are not universal beyond the nuclear family.

ObConlang: Here are some Tepa kin terms for ego's generation:

Parallel cousins and siblings:
        Si; FaBrDa, MoSiDa    kuku
        Br; FaBrSo, MoSiSo    esi

Cross cousins:
        FaSiDa, MoBrDa        teqa
        FaSiSo, MoBrSo        tema

The terms for siblings and parallel cousins are monomorphemic. The
terms for cross cousins are morphologically complex and consist of a
combining form te- 'cross cousin' and a feminine suffix -qa or a
masculine suffix -ma. (When I worked out the Tepa kinship system, I
was heavily influenced by the Numic languages (no surprise there). But
I'm feeling like some adjustments are in order. Anyway, that's where
terms stand right now.)

For an excellent overview of kinship systems look at Robin Fox's
little book _Kinship and Marriage_. It's been republished by Cambridge
University Press, and doesn't cost much at all.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu