Kinship Terms

This page is devoted to kinship terms, largely of anthropological interest, but included at this point in the grammatical description because all kinship terms are nouns and behave as such.

The Skerre use what is called the Eskimo system of kinship terms. This is essentially the same system as English, except that Skerre distinguishes male and female cousins. Skerre also has no basic term for wife or husband. Instead, the term, rose, spouse is used.

In the following chart, males are represented by triangles and females by circles (following common anthropological practice). The terms above the shapes are abbreviations for the relationship to Ego. Most of the abbreviations are straightforward, except for Z=sister.

In practice, what individuals call their relatives can vary from this chart. Very often, relatives will use a basic term listed here with the augmentative or diminutive suffix (depending on the nature of the relationship). Intimates often use the diminutive suffix (-ir). The augmentative suffix (-ok) is also used, either perjoratively or as a sign of respect.


Forward to Section 14: Inflectional Verbal Morphology
Back to Section 12: Pronouns
The Grammar Main Page