glio1241

The center of the kinship system is called EGO. Relevant concepts are

• generation up
• generation down
• sex
• elder/younger
• cross (father’s sister) vs. same (father’s brother)
• in-law
• default values (uncle vs. female uncle)

All languages conflate some of the positions. German or English for instance make no difference between paternal and maternal uncles and whether they are consanguineous or in-laws, and they do not care about the relative age of siblings either. English does not care about sex for cousins.

For Oubi, we seem to have:

• yu ‘child’ (own child?)

That can be modified for sex (nyubEyu/nyoro) and age (parong/tawE)

• mbi ‘father’

• ndi ‘mother’

• dou ‘sibling (default male)’

Parents’ siblings have composite, transparent designations

• mbi dou nyorono ‘father’s sibling, female’

In-laws seem to count as family in the same generation

• du nyoro ‘sister/sister-in-law’

Going up in the generations, “na yiru” is used to indicate distance 2 from ego, ie ‘grandparents’.

Questions: What about great-grandparents, grandchildren? What is the word for “parents”? What about cousins, nephews, nieces? What about ego’s younger and elder brothers/sisters/cousins?

Are there any culturally special relations, eg ego having a special bond to the younger sister of ego’s father?

Can you marry cross-cousins (father’s sister’ child or mother’s brother’s child)?