#High valyrian kinship terminology

[azraelia-high-valyrian]

High Valyrian Kinship terminology, by David J. Peterson

Other words :

Mumuña : Maternal Grandmother

Kepāzma : Maternal Grandfather

Muñāzma : Paternal Grandmother

Kekepa : Paternal Grandfather

[puddox]

In relation to anon's question "Was the terminology in any way affected by the fact that the valyrians practiced incest?", i can't speak for high valyrian, but iirc this is thought to be a reason why this sort of system develops in natural languages. In some societies, cousin marriages are ok, but sibling marriages are not. However, it is fairly common for people to have sex with their spouse's siblings, whether secretly or openly. This means that the children of your father's brother, or your mother's sister, may in fact be your half siblings, and not your cousins, which would make relationships with them forbidden. This kinship system takes that into account, by only allowing cousin marriages who's parent you're related to is of a different sex to your parent, since they can only be your half siblings in cases of sibling incest in the generation above yours, which is far less likely (Paraphrased from memory from the wikipedia article on cross cousins)

rytsas, I've been learning valyrian lately and got to the kinship terminology. As perplexing as it is I think I understood it. But why did the words for father and father's brother merge? Was the terminology in any way affected by the fact that the valyrians practiced incest? Are there words for grandparents? if not, is the dictionary growing? I have so many more questions... love your work, kirimvose.

The words didn’t merge: Children call their father kepa, and their father’s brother kepa. Valyrian’s is one of the six basic types of kinship systems—specifically the Iroquois system. If you haven’t seen this image before, this should explain it:

Only two of the systems actually use different terms for a maternal aunt and paternal uncle. The system we use in English happens to be one of those.

Also, for ease of reference, this is what the High Valyrian image looks like:

Though, of course, the vowel should be long in ñābranna.

The dictionary is always growing. I’ll continue to work on my languages till I’m dead.

Thanks for the ask!

[valyrianwiki]

Check out the above link for our newly udpated High Valyrian family trees!

[dedalvs]

rytsas, I've been learning valyrian lately and got to the kinship terminology. As perplexing as it is I think I understood it. But why did the words for father and father's brother merge? Was the terminology in any way affected by the fact that the valyrians practiced incest? Are there words for grandparents? if not, is the dictionary growing? I have so many more questions... love your work, kirimvose.

The words didn’t merge: Children call their father kepa, and their father’s brother kepa. Valyrian’s is one of the six basic types of kinship systems—specifically the Iroquois system. If you haven’t seen this image before, this should explain it:

Only two of the systems actually use different terms for a maternal aunt and paternal uncle. The system we use in English happens to be one of those.

Also, for ease of reference, this is what the High Valyrian image looks like:

Though, of course, the vowel should be long in ñābranna.

The dictionary is always growing. I’ll continue to work on my languages till I’m dead.

Thanks for the ask!