[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] kinship terms for 'cousins'

[Jesse P. Gates]

Dear Mickey,

Many TB languages lack a specific kinship term for 'cousin'. Stau does not
have specific kinship terms for 'cousin', but rather uses 'brother' or
'sister' for the vocative, and for possessive/declarative, an idiomatic
tʰɛv(=ɡə ŋə-rə) following 'brother' or 'sister'. So, for example,

Vocative: æti ‘mohter's brother's son (older than ego)’
Possessive/declarative: æti tʰɛv(=ɡə ŋə-rə)ˈ ‘mohter's brother's son (older
than ego)’
Vocative: ædæ ‘mohter's brother's daughter (older than ego)’
Possessive/declarative: ædæ ˈtʰɛv(=ɡə ŋə-rə) ‘‘mohter's brother's daughter
(older than ego)’ ’

tʰɛv(=ɡə ŋə-rə) means ‘is a relative’. The ending =ɡə ŋə-rə is the
indefinite article + copula + sensory evidential. The modifier *tʰɛv* was
borrowed from the G.yukhog Tibetan *tʰov* (WT: *thov*) phrase *tʰov-nə-ret*,
but in G.yukhog Tibetan *=nə-ret* is not optional.

If you haven't already, I also suggest that you determine whether there are
some differences between vocative and possessive/declarative, and what the
terms are for each. Many languages, so some differences between "what I
call a relative" vs. "what that relative is called."

One interesting thing about most Gyalrongic languages is that they
distinguish 'male-speaking' vs. 'female-speaking' (it is actually based on
the sex of the referent, not the speaker, unless the speaker is the
referent) for older and younger siblings. See below for this in Stau.

[image: Screenshot 2026-02-11 at 5.40.05 AM.png]
These analyses, along with other fun things about Stau kinship terminology,
can be found in my 2023 LTBA article "Kinship terms in Stau" (attached).


On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 10:51 PM Yuan-Lin Yang <firstboy11th at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Tibeto-Burmanists:
>
> I am currently working on Taunggyi (Northern) Pa'O, a Karenic language
> mainly spoken in the Shan State, Myanmar. Through yesterday's field session
> with my consultant, I learnt that their language does not have specific
> kinship terms for 'cousins' or 'ego's father/mother's brother/sister's
> child(ren)'. Instead, they just call them 'uncle/aunt's child/son/daughter'
> (but they do distinguish uncles or aunts of different ages and sides). And
> I have also tried to check whether such a phenomenon is prevalent in TB
> languages with ChatGPT, yet it has only found that Burmese, Lahu, and
> Lepcha seem to behave in the same way.
>
> Thus, purely out of interest, I would like to know if similar phonomena is
> also found in the languages you work on. And if your language(s) happen to
> be other special cases, you are welcome to share as well.
>
> Best,
> Mickey,
> MA student, Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University.
> _______________________________________________
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