[Lingtyp] Kinship systems that distinguish age but not gender

[David Gil]

Matt beat me to it on Malay/Indonesian!  I would just like to add that 
while many (most?) varieties that I am familiar with work the way Matt 
describes, some exhibit an asymmetry in which elder siblings are 
distinguished for gender while younger ones are not. This pattern is 
also evident in closely-related Minangkabau:

adiak - 'younger sibling'
uda - 'elder brother'
uni - 'elder sister'

And I suspect that it is common in other languages of the region.


On 19/07/2017 10:40, Matthew Carroll wrote:
> Hi Guys
>
> What about Indonesian/Malay? kakak/adik for elder/younger sibling 
> respectively.
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
> On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 9:31 AM, Hedvig Skirgård 
> <hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com <mailto:hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Dear LINGTYP,
>
>     Does anyone know of a language that has a distinction in the
>     kinship system for age of referent (younger/older) without also
>     having a distinction for gender of referent? For example, a
>     language that marks siblings as being younger or older to ego
>     without reference to being sister or brother.
>
>     The hypothesis is that this doesn't happen/is very rare. We'd like
>     to know if you've come across any examples of this.
>
>     I'm asking for my friend Alex (cc:ed) who is not on the list.
>     Please direct any responses or comments to her.
>
>     *****
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>     *Hedvig Skirgård*
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>     *
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-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816

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