[Lingtyp] Kinship systems that distinguish age but not gender

[Anvita Abbi]

Dear Hedvig,
The Tibeto-Burman language Liangmai spoken in India has the kinship term
*a-chi* 'my elder brother/sister'. The word *chi* can also be used as an
address form for a person [both gender ] older to the addresser. There is
no word for younger sibling.
Anvita

Prof. (Dr.) Anvita Abbi
Hon Director of Centre for Oral and Tribal Literature
Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, India
Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, Canada
President: Linguistic Society of India
www.andamanese.net


On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 5:39 AM, Hedvig Skirgård <hedvig.skirgard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello again everyone,
>
> Alex has what she needs, thanks everyone! Feel free to continue the
> discussion if there is anyone else who has an interest, but know that Alex
> (who was the one wanting to know) is satisfied at this point.
>
> Alex has since added herself to the LINGTYP-list (good recruiting
> everyone!).
>
> Best,
> Hedvig
>
>
> *****
>
> *Tōfā soifua,*
>
> *Hedvig Skirgård*
>
>
> PhD Candidate
> The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity
>
> ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
>
> School of Culture, History and Language
> College of Asia and the Pacific
>
> Rm 4203, H.C. Coombs Building (#9)
> The Australian National University
>
> Acton ACT 2601
>
> Australia
>
> Co-chair of Public Relations
>
> Board of the International Olympiad of Linguistics
>
> www.ioling.org
>
> Blogger at Humans Who Read Grammars
> http://humans-who-read-grammars.blogspot.
>
> On 20 July 2017 at 05:53, Francoise Rose <Francoise.Rose at univ-lyon2.fr>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Alex,
>>
>> It seems that Mojeño Trinitario (Arawak, Bolivia) shows the pattern you
>> are looking for. There are two terms for ‘older sibling’, and one for
>> ‘younger sibling’. They apply both to male and female referents and are
>> used by both male and female speakers. The three terms are necessarily
>> preceded by a possessive prefix.
>>
>> -echovi, -porape ‘older sibling’ (speakers don’t note any difference in
>> meaning, but I haven’t worked on that topic)
>>
>> -ati ‘younger sibling’
>>
>> Please let me know if you want more data.
>>
>>
>>
>> NB: Mojeño shows a genderlect distinction (Rose 2013), but as I have
>> argued elsewhere (Rose 2015), contrarily to common thought, there is no
>> kinship system that encodes the gender of the speaker (while some encode
>> the gender of the referent or that of the ego).
>>
>>
>>
>> Rose, Françoise. 2013. “Los generolectos del mojeño”, in *Liames*: 13,
>> 115-134.
>>
>> Rose, Françoise. 2015. “On male and female speech and more. A typology
>> of categorical gender indexicality in indigenous South American languages
>> ”, in *International Journal of American Linguistics*: 81.4, 495-537.
>>
>>
>>
>> Very best,
>>
>> Françoise ROSE
>>
>> Directeur de Recherches 2ème classe, CNRS
>>
>> Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (CNRS/Université Lyon2)
>>
>> 16 avenue Berthelot
>>
>> 69007 Lyon
>>
>> FRANCE
>>
>> (33)4 72 72 64 63
>>
>> www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/ROSE
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *De :* Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org] *De la
>> part de* Hedvig Skirgård
>> *Envoyé :* mercredi 19 juillet 2017 01:32
>> *À :* <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG> <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist
>> .org>; Alexandra Marley <alexandra.marley at anu.edu.au>; Kyla Quinn <
>> kyla.quinn at anu.edu.au>
>> *Objet :* [Lingtyp] Kinship systems that distinguish age but not gender
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> *****
>>
>> *Tōfā soifua,*
>>
>> *Hedvig Skirgård*
>>
>>
>> PhD Candidate
>> The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity
>>
>> ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
>>
>> School of Culture, History and Language
>> College of Asia and the Pacific
>>
>> Rm 4203, H.C. Coombs Building (#9)
>> The Australian National University
>>
>> Acton ACT 2601
>>
>> Australia
>>
>> Co-chair of Public Relations
>>
>> Board of the International Olympiad of Linguistics
>>
>> www.ioling.org
>>
>> Blogger at Humans Who Read Grammars
>> http://humans-who-read-grammars.blogspot.
>>
>
>
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