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

On Wednesday 12 December 2001 10:09, James Campbell wrote:
> Andreas eskrë »
>
> > Imperative wrote:
> > >Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > ><<
> > >That's another weirdity of learning English in school - they tell you
> > >that
> > >there simply is no direct translation of the Swedish word _syskon_
> > >"sibling", and that if you desperately need to translate ie you have
> > >to use
> > >"brother or sister"
> > >
> > >
> > >Wait a moment...? Isn't "sibling" an adequate translation of "brother
> > >and sister"? Or is your point that that's how they teach English in
> > >schools over there?
> >
> > 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".)
I'd say you could use it as singular (e.g. "Jeg har ett søsken", I
have one sibling), though it's much more commonly used as a plural.

> Thought: is English "kin" related to _syskon_/_søsken_?
Apparently not: according to "Etymologisk ordbog over det norske og
det danske sprog", it's from Old Norse systkind, "one of several
siblings" (originally "sister and brother"), and is one of several
similar words. It is formed from syster, sister, and a suffix -în(i)a
meaning something like "related to", which is also found in
svin/swine.

-------------
Rune Haugseng

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