Kinship terms: Informal first person

 Kashaya
Grammar

As mentioned in other discussions of Kashaya kinship terms, there are ten words that have a special form when referring informally to the speaker's own relation. (The other possessive forms are discussed elsewhere.) These are equivalent to more familiar kin terms in English such as mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, auntie as opposed to mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt. Names such as mama, pop, nana are similar informal terms.

  "my, our"
informal		 "my, our"
formal		 "your" "his, her, their" "his, her, their"
reflexive
"mother" te·tʰénʔ ʔa·tʰénʔ mihṭʰeʹ miyá·ṭʰe mahṭʰeʹ
"father" pe·pénʔ ʔa·pénʔ meʔeʹ miyá·me maʔeʹ
"older brother" ki·kínʔ ʔa·kínʔ mikiʹ miyá·ki makiʹ
"father's father or older brother" ba·bánʔ ba·sʼénʔ mibasʼ ʹ miyá·basʼ mabasʼ ʹ
"father's mother" ma·mánʔ ma·sʼénʔ mimasʼ ʹ miyá·masʼ mamasʼ ʹ
"father's sister" mu·múnʔ mu·sʼénʔ mimusʼ ʹ miyá·musʼ mamusʼ ʹ
"mother's brother" tu·túnʔ cu·sʼénʔ micusʼ ʹ miyá·cusʼ macusʼ ʹ
"mother's father" ta·tánʔ ca·sʼénʔ micasʼ ʹ miyá·casʼ macasʼ ʹ
"mother's mother" ka·kánʔ qa·sʼénʔ miqasʼ ʹ miyá·qasʼ maqasʼ ʹ
"mother's older sister" šu·šúnʔ šu·sʼénʔ mišusʼ ʹ miyá·šusʼ mašusʼ ʹ

We can make two observations about these words.

  1. They all have the same reduplicated shape, with a short CV that is a copy of the preceding CV· that has a long vowel. None of the other kinship forms are reduplicated.
  2. The CV is usually the same as what we see in all the related words, but in a few cases the C is simpler in the informal word: ṭʰ changes to tʰ in "mother", c to t in "mother's brother" and "mother's father", and q to k in "mother's mother". These probably reflect the fact that those original sounds are harder for a child to learn, and the informal words are what a child would typically use.

Notice that even the formal version "my mother", ʔa·tʰénʔ, has the front t sound. This is presumably due to the influence of the informal word; but some speakers also use the pronunciation ʔa·ṭʰénʔ which follows the usual pattern.

See the separate discussions of the kinship roots, their person marking, and the case forms.