On Friday 23 May 2003 12:29 pm, Roger Mills wrote:
> Sally Caves wrote:
>
> [Someone wrote]
> > > > My favorite insult: "Your parents were brothers!"
>
> > Ailly! What if you don't have a word in your language for "parent"?
Just
> > "mother" or "father"? In Teonaht, "parents" in the plural is
"nippanand,"
> > your "momdads." How utterly hetero of the Teonim...
>
> Same problem in Kash, indeyama /inde+ama/ 'mother-father', as well as
> Indonesian ibu-bapak. It would be, I think, considered strange, though
not
> impossible, for two Kash brothers to form a union. Maybe even taboo,
I'm
> not sure. Unlike Le Guin's ambisexual* Gethenians, Kash males can't
> physically give birth, though a couple could adopt, foster etc., or
they
> might have had children in a m/f relationship. Just like here, mostly.
>
> Off the record, in NYC days, I knew a set of identical (male) twins
who were
> lovers. Not totally unusual, according to them.......
>
> *Not sure that's the right word; those who've read The Left Hand of
Darkness
> know what I mean. "Kemmer" between siblings was tabooed, though it
> happened, and gave rise to several very touching tales in the book.
>
> In the book, LeG used "he" to refer to them, but in one or two
ancillary
> stories, published later, she used "she", resulting in very
interesting
> contrasts/connotations, at least for the Engl.-speaking reader.
>
>
Is it "Winter's King" that exists in both pronominal variants?
--
Elyse Grasso
The World of Cherani Station
www.data-raptors.com/cherani/index.html
Cherani Tradespeech
www.data-raptors.com/cherani/tradespeech.html