From 74774.157@compuserve.com Sat Nov 4 12:46:04 1995 Date: 04 Nov 95 00:03:36 EST From: Jeffrey Henning <74774.157@compuserve.com> To: BlindCopyReceiver: ; Subject: MODLANG 6 - Meaning - 2 of 2 SIDEBAR: RELATIVE TERMS FOR RELATIVES Kinship terms have been widely analyzed across languages, which often make quite different distinctions. We broke English kinship terms down into Generation, Sex and Lineage earlier, but to translate terms from other languages we will need to add additional semantic components. We will outline KINDEEP (KINship Distinctive Elements, Exhaustive Profile) here, a detailed framework for defining kinship terms from different languages. KINDEEP has semantic components for Generation, Lineage, Sex, Side Of Family, Relative Birth Order and Person. GENERATIONS The value for Generation is any number, with 0 indicating the base or current generation, negative numbers indicating ancestors of the base generation, and positive numbers indicating descendants. One of the more unusual kinship terms in the world is _maili_, from Njamal, an Australian aborigine language. The word _maili_ means "any relative two generations distant", such as a father's father (two generations before) or a daughter's son's wife's sister (two generations after). KINDEEP expresses this as simply {Generation: +2}{Generation: - 2}. LINEAGE As described in the main article above, Lineage can be either Direct, Colineal or Ablineal. SEX Sex is either Male, Female or Corresponding. The atom Corresponding is necessary to analyze some Hawaiian terms. For instance, the Hawaiian word _kaikaina_ means "younger sibling of the same sex as the referent". So a man's _kaikaina_ would be his younger brother; a woman's _kaikaina_ would be her younger sister. SIDE OF FAMILY Languages often make distinctions between the sides of a family, such as maternal, paternal, _step-_ and _half-_. The semantic component of Side of Family can take any of these values: {Maternal}, {Paternal}, {Step}, {Half} and {Honorary}. MATERNAL/PATERNAL One difference might be as simple as distinguishing between a mother's brother and a father's brother, as Latin and many other European languages do. Latin has two different words for "uncle" depending on the exact relationship, _avunculus_ for "mother's brother" and _patruus_ for "father's brother". Thus Latin lacks one word to collectively describe what we think of as "uncle" (how did schoolchildren cry "surrender!" we wonder?) or -- for that matter -- "aunt". Like Old French, other Romance languages lost this distinction, adopting the maternal terms to refer to either side of the family; thus, Modern French has _oncle_ and _tante_, which were adopted into English as _uncle_ and _aunt_ respectively, displacing the Old English tradition of referring to this generation as "father's brother", "mother's sister", etc. Just as Latin has no single words for either "uncle" or "aunt", Swedish has no single words equivalent to either "grandmother" or "grandfather", but must specify which side of the family the relationship is through. Swedish does this concisely, using _far_ to mean "father", _mor_ to mean "mother", for: _mormor_, "mother's mother, maternal grandmother" _farmor_, "father's mother, paternal grandmother" _morfar_, "mother's father, maternal grandfather" _farfar_, "father's father, paternal grandfather". Interestingly, however, Swedish does not use _mor_ and _far_ by themselves for "mother" and "father" respectively, using _moder_ and _fader_ for that instead. No sense taking logic to far in a natural language! (I am not aware of any other European language that distinguishes between maternal and paternal grandparents.) THE FAMILY'S DARK SIDE Besides referring to the maternal or paternal side of a family, it is also possible to refer to other blood distinctions, especially those regarding re-marriage. English uses the prefix _step-_ to refer to relatives related only by re-marriage, not blood, as in the _evil stepmother_ (which is not redundant) and the _ungrateful stepdaughter_, for instance. English uses the suffix _-in-law_ to refer to relatives related by marriage, as in the _evil mother-in-law_ and the _ungrateful daughter-in-law_. When all this familial love becomes too much to bear, English uses _ex-_ in front of many or all the other terms, so that you can refer to your _ex-husband_, your _ex-stepdaughter_, your _ex-mother- in-law_, even your _ex-great-grandfather-in-law_. But you're not likely to hear the terms _ex-mother_ or _ex-brother_ to describe estranged relatives... English also uses the prefix _half-_ to refer to children who share only one parent (_half-brother_ and _half-sister_) but the term is not used to refer to other relatives (no _*half-mother_, _*half-grandson_). THE FAMILY'S BRIGHT SIDE Families often have unofficial members, as English recognizes by encouraging the use of _Aunt_ and _Uncle_ for close family friends of the same generation as a child's parents. I have an Uncle Bill and Aunt Jill, close friends of my parents' from their college days, who were the only honorary parentsibs that I had. To support this almost metaphoric use of _Aunt_ and _Uncle_, KINDEEP uses the value {Honorary} as part of the semantic component of Side Of Family. RELATIVE BIRTH ORDER Japanese also makes distinctions of another variety, distinguishing between younger and elder siblings. For instance, _ane_, "older sister"; _ani_, "older brother"; _oto/to_, "younger brother"; _imo/to_, "younger sister". Of course, these words also have first- and second-person forms. In total, therefore, Japanese has six words for "brother", with separate words making the following distinctions: "older brother" "younger brother" "my older brother" "my younger brother" "your older brother" "your younger brother". KINDEEP has the semantic component {Relative Birth Order}, with values for {Older} and {Younger}. In natural languages, this distinction is almost always used for siblings, but KINDEEP extends it for the common siblings of any generation, making it easy to express terms such as "younger uncle", for instance. PERSON The Japanese are strongly oriented around family and ancestry, and accordingly their language is richer in kinship terms than English. One of the distinctions Japanese makes is that it has separate forms for "my relative" and "your or other's relatives". For instance, _mago_ is "my grandson"; _omagosan_ is "your grandson". Think of this as a combination pronoun/kinship term, with the term specifying either first person ("my") or second person ("your"). All of Japanese' second-person forms end in the _-san_ suffix or a variant of it. The base word may be different, as in _haha_ for "my mother" but _oka/san_ for "your mother" (rather than _*hahasan_). Therefore, KINDEEP recognizes the semantic component Person, with values of {First} and {Second}. It would be easy to suggest a third-person form -- e.g., "their mother" -- but I am not aware of any language that makes this distinction. KINDEEP EXAMPLES The following table provides a framework to present the kinship terms of many different languages. If you have a term from a language that does not fit, please pass it on! When you create your own model language, you can decide which components you want to include. A typical minimal profile involves just three components, as in English's use of Generation, Lineage and Sex, though it is easy to imagine a language that does not distinguish between terms based on sex. KINDEEP (KINship Distinctive Elements, Exhaustive Profile) is actually exhausting, rather than exhaustive! For instance, it fails to have terms that have been enabled by reproductive science: the womb-mother (she carried the child of another in her womb), the egg-donor (she provided the egg that was fertilized and carried by the womb-mother), the caretaker-mother who actually raised the child but was not biologically related, the sperm donor and caretaker-father! TABLE OF KINSHIP TERMS Legend - L. Language: D = Danish, E = English, H = Hawaiian, J = Japanese, L = Latin, M = Malay, N = Njamal (Australia), P. Pitjanjatjara (Australia), S = Swedish Gen. Generation Ln. Lineage: A = Ablineal, C = Colineal, D = Direct Sx. Sex: F = Female, M = Male, S = Corresponding Sid. Side of Family Per. Person: 1 = First, 2 = Second B. Relative Birth Order: O = Older, Y = Younger L. Term, Translation Gen. Ln. Sx. Sid. Per. B. E. great great grandparent -4 D E. great grandparent -3 D E. great aunt -2 A F S. mormor, maternal grandmother -2 D F maternal S. farmor, paternal grandmother -2 D F paternal E. grandmother -2 D F S. morfar, maternal grandfather -2 D M maternal S. farfar, paternal grandfather -2 D M paternal E. grandfather -2 D M E. grandparent -2 D L. amita, maternal aunt -1 A F maternal P. kurntili, paternal aunt -1 A F paternal L. matertera, paternal aunt -1 A F paternal E. aunt -1 A F J. haha, my mother -1 D F 1 J. oka/san, your mother -1 D F 2 E. mother -1 D F P. ngunytju, mother or mother's sister -1 D,A F maternal E. "uncle", man of father's generation -1 A M honorary P. kamura, maternal uncle -1 A M maternal L. avunculus, maternal uncle -1 A M maternal L. patruus, paternal uncle -1 A M paternal E. uncle -1 A M E. father -1 D M P. mama, father or father's brother -1 D,A M paternal E. father or uncle -1 D,A M E. parent's sibling -1 A E. parent -1 D D. kusine, female cousin 0 A F E. stepsister 0 C F half E. stepsister 0 C F step J. [NA], my sister 0 C F 1 J. [NA], your sister 0 C F 2 J. ane, older sister 0 C F O J. imo/to, younger sister 0 C F Y E. sister 0 C F D. f{ae}tter, male cousin 0 A M E. stepbrother 0 C M half E. stepbrother 0 C M step J. [NA], my brother 0 C M 1 J. [NA], your brother 0 C M 2 J. ani, male older brother 0 C M O J. oto/to, male younger brother 0 C M Y E. brother 0 C M H. kaikaina, younger sibling of my gender 0 C S Y E. cousin, child of aunt or uncle 0 A E. sibling 0 C M. [NA], sibling or cousin 0 E. daughter 1 D F E. son 1 D M E. cousin, first cousin once removed 1 A E. offspring 1 D E. granddaughter 2 D F J. mago, my grandson 2 D M 1 J. omagosan, your grandson 2 D M 2 E. grandson 2 D M E. grandchild 2 D E. family, parents and siblings [-1,0] D,C E. ancestor [<0] E. descendant [>0] N. maili, anyone two generations removed [2,-2] E. cousin, relative from common ancestor* A E. cousin, member of kindred group honorary E. cousin, relative by blood or marriage E. relative E. kin *English _cousin_ is a relative descended from a common ancestor by two or more divergent steps, so KINDEEP does not offer a perfect translation, sincle it includes uncle and aunt SEN:ESEPERA KINSHIP TERMS For my model language Sen:esepera, which is designed to fulfill the role of an interlanguage for use by people of all the world's linguistic backgrounds (and was profiled in MODLANG 5), I chose a maximally expressive way of forming kinship terms. All kinship terms are compounded from roots representing each symantic component and its atoms, as shown in the following table. PERSON SEX SIDE GENERATION ORDER LINEAGE ------------------------------------------------------------ ENGLISH ------------------------------------------------------------ excl. excl. excl. incl. excl. incl. my male paternal -3 older direct your female maternal -2 younger ablineal corres. half- -1 colineal step- 0 unspecified honorary 1 2 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ SEN:ESEPERA ------------------------------------------------------------ imun eman pam intensin tempan pa tun fem fam inten im:tempan ta sim duen in sa tepim u coganta belim dim dimin diminten [afo:] before intensin, diminten means "great-" [afo:] before in, dim means "all" (e.g., "afo:in" means "all ancestors") ------------------------------------------------------------ Thus an English speaker can talk about his cousin, _u:ta_ in Sen:esepera, if that is the term he is most comfortable with, while a Dutch speaker can talk about her _nicht_ ("female cousin"), _fem:u:ta_ in Sen:esepera, if that is the term she is most comfortable with. The word _fem:u:ta_ will stand out to the English-speaker reading Sen:esepera, who does not habitually make the distinction of sex for cousin, but he will immediately know the meaning of the word. Sen:esepera Translation Generation SxLn Side PeR afo:intensin:pa great great grandparent -4 D intensin:pa great grandparent -3 D fem:inten:ta great aunt -2 F A fem:fam:inten:pa maternal grandmother -2 F D mater fem:pam:inten:pa paternal grandmother -2 F D pater fem:inten:pa grandmother -2 F D eman:fam:inten:pa maternal grandfather -2 M D mater eman:pam:inten:pa paternal grandfather -2 M D pater eman:inten:pa grandfather -2 M D inten:pa grandparent -2 D fem:fam:in:ta maternal aunt -1 F A mater fem:pam:in:ta paternal aunt -1 F A pater fem:pam:in:ta paternal aunt -1 F A pater fem:in:ta aunt -1 F A imun:fem:in:pa my mother -1 F D 1 tun:fem:in:pa your mother -1 F D 2 fem:in:pa mother -1 F D fem:fam:in:ta:pa mother or mother's sister -1 F D,A mater eman:belim:in:ta man of father's generation -1 M A honor eman:fam:in:ta maternal uncle -1 M A mater eman:fam:in:ta maternal uncle -1 M A mater eman:pam:in:ta paternal uncle -1 M A pater eman:in:ta uncle -1 M A eman:in:pa father -1 M D eman:pam:in:ta:pa father or father's brother -1 M D,A pater eman:in:ta:pa father or uncle -1 M D,A in:ta parent's sibling -1 A in:pa parent -1 D fem:u:ta female cousin 0 F A fem:duen:u:sa stepsister 0 F C half fem:tepim:u:sa stepsister 0 F C step imun:fem:u:sa my sister 0 F C 1 tun:fem:u:sa your sister 0 F C 2 fem:u:tempan:sa older sister 0 F C O fem:u:im:tempan:sa younger sister 0 F C Y fem:u:sa sister 0 F C eman:u:ta male cousin 0 M A eman:duen:u:sa stepbrother 0 M C half eman:tepim:u:sa stepbrother 0 M C step imun:eman:u:sa my brother 0 M C 1 tun:eman:u:sa your brother 0 M C 2 eman:u:tempan:sa male older brother 0 M C O eman:u:im:tempan:sa male younger brother 0 M C Y eman:u:sa brother 0 M C sim:u:im:tempan:sa younger sibling of my gender 0 S C Y u:ta child of aunt or uncle 0 A u:sa sibling 0 C u:coganta sibling or cousin 0 fem:dim:pa daughter 1 F D eman:dim:pa son 1 M D dim:ta first cousin once removed 1 A dim:pa offspring 1 D fem:dimin:pa granddaughter 2 F D imun:eman:dimin:pa my grandson 2 M D 1 tun:eman:dimin:pa your grandson 2 M D 2 eman:dimin:pa grandson 2 M D dimin:pa grandchild 2 D in:ta:o:u:sa parents and siblings [-1,0] D,C afo:in:coganta ancestor [<0] afo:dim:coganta descendant [>0] inten:dimin:coganta anyone two generations removed [2,-2] ta relative from common ancestor* A belim:coganta member of kindred group or nati honor coganta relative by blood or marriage coganta relative coganta kin LANGUAGE MAKER HELPS YOU QUICKLY CREATE LANGUAGES The Perfect Christmas Gift To Yourself! 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Perseus Language Maker costs just $99, plus shipping. For U.S. shipping, add $5 for ground, $10 for Priority Mail, $15 for overnight shipping. For international shipping, by ground, add $20. Free shipping to Compuserve or America Online e-mail addresses. Or provide your own stamped return envelope or overnight-shipping label, and we'll waive the shipping charge. To order, send a check or money order to: Jeffrey Henning Perseus Development Corp. 52 Gerard Road Norwell, MA 02061 USA We offer a 60-day money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain in bringing your language to completion. All orders received by December 8 will be shipped by December 15. *** You have just finished reading _Model Languages_, a regular on-line newsletter published monthly and provided free to all interested parties as part of the "gift economy" of the net. Feel free to post this newsletter on BBSes or online services and feel free to e-mail it to others, so long as you include this trailer. To subscribe, send a message with the text "SUBSCRIBE MODLANG \3 [your name]" in the subject header to 74774.157@compuserve.com. To cancel a subscription, send a message with the word "UNSUBSCRIBE MODLANG" in the header. I look forward to all comments, including the inevitable corrections, and am always interested in possible articles for inclusion in future issues. To retrieve back issues, send a message with the text "RETRIEVE MODLANG #(-#)" in the header, where the number signs represent the issue or issues you want to retrieve; e.g., "RETRIEVE MODLANG 1" for the first issue, "RETRIEVE MODLANG 1-2" for the first two issues (you are reading issue 6). Retrievals are processed once a month (until I find a volunteer to set up a mailbot). NOTE: This document looks best when formatted with a monospaced font such as Courier. Contents copyright 1995 Jeffrey Henning. All rights reserved.