Dyadic kinship term

Last updated March 26, 2019

Dyadic kinship terms (abbreviated DY or DYAD) are kinship terms in a few languages that express the relationship between individuals as they relate one to the other. In English, there are a few set phrases for such situations, such as "they are father and son", but there is not a single dyadic term that can be used the way "they are cousins" can; even the latter is not truly dyadic, as it does not necessarily mean that they are cousins to each other. The few, and uncommon, English dyadic terms involve in-laws: co-mothers-in-law, co-fathers-in-law, co-brothers-in-law, co-sisters-in-law, co-grandmothers, and co-grandfathers.

Examples of dyadic terms for blood kin include Kayardild (Australian) ngamathu-ngarrba "mother and child", derived from ngamathu "mother", and kularrin-ngarrba "brother and sister", from kularrin "cross-sibling", with the dyadic suffix -ngarrba. Not all such terms are derived; the Ok language Mian has a single unanalysable root lum for "father and child".^[1]

Kayardild is a moribund Tangkic language spoken by the Kaiadilt on the South Wellesley Islands, north west Queensland, Australia, with fewer than ten fluent speakers remaining. Other members of the family include Lardil, Yukulta (Ganggalida) and Yangkaal. It is famous for its many unusual case phenomena, including case stacking of up to four levels, the use of clause-level case to signal interclausal relations and pragmatic factors, and another set of 'verbal case' endings which convert their hosts from nouns into verbs morphologically.

The Oksapmin languages are a family of a score of related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known is probably Telefol. They are:

Mian is an Ok language spoken in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea by the Mian people. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two dialects: West Mian, with approximately 1,000 speakers in around Yapsiei, and East Mian, with approximately 2,500 speakers in and around Timeilmin, Temsakmin, Sokamin, Gubil, Fiak and Hotmin. Phonologically, Mian is very similar to other Papuan languages in the size of its phoneme inventory, but it nevertheless has some peculiarities, such as its contrast between a plain [a] and a pharyngealized [aˤ]. It is also a tonal language.

Dyadic blood-kin terms are rare in Indo-European languages. Examples are Icelandic and Faroese, which have the terms feðgar "father and son", feðgin "father and daughter", mæðgin "mother and son", mæðgur "mother and daughter".^[1]

The Indo-European languages are a language family of several hundred related languages and dialects.

Icelandic is a North Germanic language spoken in Iceland. Along with Faroese, Norn, and Western Norwegian it formerly constituted West Nordic; while Danish, Eastern Norwegian and Swedish constituted East Nordic. Modern Norwegian Bokmål is influenced by both groups, leading the Nordic languages to be divided into mainland Scandinavian languages and Insular Nordic. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages until the Portuguese settlement in the Azores.

Faroese is a North Germanic language spoken as a first language by about 72,000 people, around 49,000 of whom reside on the Faroe Islands and 23,000 in other areas, mainly Denmark. It is one of five languages descended from Old West Norse spoken in the Middle Ages, the others being Norwegian, Icelandic, and the extinct Norn and Greenlandic Norse. Faroese and Icelandic, its closest extant relative, are not mutually intelligible in speech, but the written languages resemble each other quite closely, largely owing to Faroese's etymological orthography.

Japanese uses compound nouns to make dyadic terms, such as 親子 oyako 'parent and child', 兄弟 kyōdai 'brothers; siblings', 姉妹 shimai 'sisters', and 夫婦 fūfu 'husband and wife'.

The languages which have such terms are concentrated in the western Pacific. There are at least ten in New Guinea, including Oksapmin,^[2] Menya, and the Ok languages; fifteen or more Austronesian languages, from Taiwan to New Caledonia; and at least sixty in Australia, such as Kayardild above. There are sporadic examples in Northern Eurasia, including a few Turkic and Uralic languages, Yukaghir, and Ainu; depending on definitions, the Yi languages of Southeast Asia may also be said to have such terms. Elsewhere they are rare, or at least have not been described. Known languages include Athabaskan (Koyukon and Carrier), Pomo, and Southern Paiute in North America, Quechua and Cariban (Tiriyo) in South America, Adyghe in the Caucasus, and Khoe (Kxoe, Gǀwi) in southern Africa.^[1]

Oksapmin is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Telefomin District, Sandaun, Papua New Guinea. It has been influenced by the Ok languages, and the similarities with those languages were attributed to borrowing in the classifications of both Stephen Wurm (1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005), where Oksapmin was placed as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea. However, Loughnane (2009) and Loughnane and Fedden (2011) demonstrated that it is related to the Ok languages, though they share innovative features not found in Oksapmin.

Menya is an Angan language of Papua New Guinea.

The Austronesian languages are a language family that is widely dispersed throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean, with a few members in continental Asia. Austronesian languages are spoken by about 386 million people (4.9%), making it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages with the highest number of speakers are Malay, Javanese, and Filipino (Tagalog). The family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.

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References

1 2 3 Evans, Nicholas. 2006. "Dyadic Constructions." In Keith Brown (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd Edition).
↑ The Oksapmin Kinship System Archived 2009-09-20 at the Wayback Machine ., retrieved May 21, 2009.

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[ELL-1] 1 2 3 Evans, Nicholas. 2006. "Dyadic Constructions." In Keith Brown (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd Edition).

[2] The Oksapmin Kinship System Archived 2009-09-20 at the Wayback Machine ., retrieved May 21, 2009.