Re: Words for family groups

On Sun, 23 May 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> I've always lamented the absence, in English, of being
> able to distinguish your male cousin from your female cousine.
(taking a break from working on a frabjous table with Valdyan letters
and IPA - an awful lot of work but it seems that the result will be
worth it)

Dutch does distinguish between male and female (neef/nicht) but not
between nieces/nephews and cousins: I'm my aunt's "nicht", my
cousin's "nicht", my great-uncle's "achternicht" and also my second
or third cousin's "achternicht" (meaning cousins of my parents or
those cousins' children).

Cousins of my parents are my "achterneef" and "achternicht" as well,
even though they're one generation higher up than I am.

   Irina


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)