Re: Sibling (was: Re: The pitfall of Chinese/Mandarin)

On Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 09:09:20AM -0000, James Campbell wrote:
[snip]
> > They deny the existence of an English word meaning "sibling".
> >
> >                                               Andreas
>
> This has interested me for ages. _Syskon_ and Norwegian _søsken_ are
> commonly-used words, if I understand correctly. (Although _søsken_ is
> plural: "brothers and sisters".) However, the English word "sibling" is not
> really that common; it has a literary feel, and most British English
> speakers would say "brothers and sisters" in conversation rather than the
> rather bookish "siblings".
Interesting. The people *I'm* around routinely use "siblings"... well
actually, wait... I think it's just the one or two who were Literature
majors :-P

> ObConlang: Unsurprisingly, Jameld has no equivalent for
> syskon/søsken/sibling[s] -- it just slipped through the net, and _brothar_
> and _setstar_ would be used. However, the word _siba_ exists, meaning
> "relation, kin" as a noun, and "related, kin" as an adjective. [Source: Old
> Frisian sibbe; cf. arch. English sib, High German Sippe "clan, kin". OE
> sibling meant "relative".]
[snip]

Hmm, you remind me. My conlang's impoverished 80-word-or-so lexicon has no
word dealing with siblings or other relatives yet; so far, only parents
and children are there. I need to get cracking again... after I
incorporate the recent vowel length and vowel gradation changes I've been
toying with... (sigh, I *never* get round to these things).


T

--
Life goes on...

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