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From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Missing Words
Message-ID: <375@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Sep-83 14:10:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.375
Posted: Wed Sep 14 14:10:42 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Sep-83 15:59:24 EDT
References: <2435@teklabs.UUCP>, <2240@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 20

Dave Sherman (utcsrgv!lsuc!dave) writes:
     There is no word in English equivalent to the Yiddish "mechutonim".
     These are one's child's in-laws. (That is, your parents and your
     in-laws are mechutonim to each other.) In some societies, this
     relationship was/is important enough to merit its own title.

In the movie "The In-Laws", the title characters where mechutonim, or to
be exact, they were about to be.  One of them was always explaining
his relationship to the other thus:  "He's going to be my in-law.  His son
is marrying my daughter." (or maybe the other way around)

Another "relative" distinction English doesn't make is among the four
kinds of aunts: {mo|fa}ther's {sister | brother's wife}, and similarly
for uncles.  Latin distinguished two kinds of aunts ({fa|mo}ther's sister)
and similarly with uncles; I think the respective words were tanta, anita,
patrvvs, and avvncvlvs, but I'm not sure about the first two, or whether
spouses counted.  (Note: the last two are normally writeen patruus and
avunculus, but the u-v distinction was not made in Roman times.)

Mark Brader, NTT Systems Inc., Toronto -- decvax!utzoo!dciem!ntt