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From: ashwin@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Missing Words - (nf)
Message-ID: <2931@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Sep-83 23:51:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2931
Posted: Wed Sep 21 23:51:04 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Sep-83 02:35:36 EDT
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#R:teklabs:-243500:uicsl:8600017:000:1640
uicsl!ashwin    Sep 21 14:40:00 1983

German has two distinct words for male-cousin and female-cousin.

Hindi, along with most other languages and dialects in India, has distinct
words for the various types of uncles and aunts.  Thus:

chacha		father's younger brother
chachi		wife of chacha

tau		father's elder brother
tai		wife of tau

phoophi or bua	father's sister
phoopha		husband of phoophi

mama		mother's brother
mami		wife of mama

mausi		mother's sister
mausa		husband of mausi

Note that your father's brother is named differently, according to whether
he is elder to or younger than your father.  This probably arose due to the
importance of the eldest son in a patriarchical society.

Then there are grandparents:

nana		father of mother
nani		mother of mother

dada		father of father
dadi		mother of father

In each of the above, the suffix 'ji' is usually added as a mark of respect.
As an aside, 'ji' is also appended on to the ends of names, or other
relationship tokens (like (elder)-brother) for the same purpose.

All cousins are 'bhai' (brother) or 'bahen' (sister), and if you need to
specify the relationship, you prefix an adjectival form derived from the
relationship of the cousin's parents to you.

Finally, there are names for other relationships, like sister-of-husband,
mother-of-husband, husband-of-sister-of-wife (derived from sister-of-wife),
and so forth...  

                                Ashwin Ram

                                Coordinated Science Lab
                                University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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