Dyadic kinship term
Kinship terms
title: "Dyadic kinship term" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["kinship-terminology"] description: "Kinship terms" topic_path: "general/kinship-terminology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyadic_kinship_term" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Kinship terms ::
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".
Dyadic blood-kin terms are rare in Indo-European languages. Examples are Icelandic and Faroese, which have the terms "father and son", "father and daughter", "mother and son", "mother and daughter".
Chinese and Japanese use compound nouns to make dyadic terms, such as (in Japanese) oyako "parent and child", kyōdai "brothers; siblings", shimai "sisters", and 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, 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, Paezan (Nasa Yuwe), and Cariban (Tiriyo) in South America, Adyghe in the Caucasus, and Khoe (Kxoe, Gǀwi) in southern Africa.
References
References
- link. (2009-09-20 , retrieved May 21, 2009.)
- Evans, Nicholas. 2006. "Dyadic Constructions." In Keith Brown (ed.) ''Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics'' (2nd Edition).
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