tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 08 05:37:03 2006

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Re: nephew

QeS 'utlh ([email protected])



ghItlhpu' naHQun, ja':
>Would my wife's sister's son be my {tey'} or my {lor}?

Klingon has no words for in-laws, and only furnishes {'e'nal} "someone 
related by marriage" to fill this void. The fact that the word-forming 
element {-nal} "related by marriage" is so widespread among Klingon kinship 
terms makes me think that terms like ?{tey'nal} and ?{lornal} might also be 
possible. However, the question then becomes: what would these terms 
represent? Since more than one relationship by marriage is implied in such 
terms, they become ambiguous.

In short: maSovchu'be'. {{;)

(My two cents' worth: personally, of the two, I'm leaning towards {lor} - 
leaving your wife out of the equation, the boy is your sister-in-law's son. 
The question then is a simple one: is your sister-in-law treated the same in 
kinship terms as your sister? I see no reason why this shouldn't be the 
case, as in English, in which the son of your sister-in-law is just called 
your nephew anyway - but then, I'm mapping Terran concepts onto a Klingon 
mindset... which is dangerous at the best of times. {{:D)

>Or would I need to recast as:
>be'nalwI' be'nI' puqloD ?

If it were me, I'd make it even simpler and just say {be'nalwI' tey'loD}.

QeS 'utlh
tlhIngan Hol yejHaD pabpo' / Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute


not nItoj Hemey ngo' juppu' ngo' je
(Old roads and old friends will never deceive you)
     - Ubykh Hol vIttlhegh

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