Re: OT: Language & clans? Re: OT: Ukraine

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 16:00:39 +0000, Chris Bates
<chris.maths_student@...> wrote:

> for
>instance a word that means "brother"/"uncle" seems unlikely to me.
Kazakh has a term /aGa/, meaning both "elder brother" and "uncle".  The
equivalent /ana/ means "elder sister" and "aunt".  This may, however, be
connected with their habit of giving their firstborn to its paternal
grandparents to raise; the child then becoming "their" child, at least into
adulthood.
Also, the young marrying age of couples and large family sizes tend to
conflate the generations a little- it's entirely possible for a first- or
second-born's first children to be older than its parent's youngest sibling.

Geoff