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

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 12, 2001, 15:30
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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Anton Sherwood <bronto@...>gradation (was: Sibling)