Re: OT: Language & clans? Re: OT: Ukraine

On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 03:31:37PM -0500, John Cowan wrote:
>
> It's probably true that all kinship systems have distinct terms for
> father, mother, son, daughter, brother, and sister, plus terms for
> more distant kin, but exactly which subset of relatives can be called
> by any of these terms is very variable.  There are even systems in
> which kinship terms are used reciprocally in certain cases: you call
> your <whatever> by the same word he or she calls you.
e.g. English "cousin".   After all, I'm the first cousin twice removed
of my first cousin twice removed, even though we are different
generations (hypothetically, she may be my grandparents' or
grandchildrens' generation, although in reality the latter is as yet
empty in my family.)

-Marcos

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