--- In [log in to unmask], Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@...> wrote:

For years gzb has gotten by with phrasal circumlocutions for
describing in-laws: e.g.

fru     liqw-i          req'jxy
brother relationship-of wife
sister-in-law

I've decided to add a couple of symmetrical affixes
for deriving in-law (and step-relationship) kinship terms:

-mla: a spouse of one's relative
-toxl: a relative of one's spouse

So the English "brother-in-law" or "sister-in-law" would
be translated in at least two ways,

tax-mla 	sibling's spouse
tax-toxl	spouse's sibling

In fact there is also

tax-mla-toxl:	spouse's sibling's spouse
tax-toxl-mla:	sibling's spouse's sibling

The first of these English also describes as "brother-" or "sister-in-
law"
(at least in my 'lect); as for the second, I'm not sure if English has
a term for it.

An interesting property of these suffixes is how they work
with {kyn}, "parent", and {fru}, "child", in comparison
to how English describes the same relationships:

kyn-mla		stepmother, stepfather
kyn-toxl	mother-in-law, father-in-law
fru-toxl	stepson, stepdaughter
fru-mla		son-in-law, daughter-in-law

English considers the more salient property of the relationship
to be whether is involves a remarriage after death or divorce,
while gzb considers the more salient property to be whether
the person is related to you through your spouse or is a
spouse of someone you're blood kin to.  Or so it seems to
me; alternate analyses welcome.

The terms for "uncle/aunt (by blood)" is still in
flux in gzb (I've fluctuated between "kyn-tax" and "tax-kyn",
neither of which seems quite right); whenever I
figure out what it is, the suffix -mla will tell me what
"uncle/aunt by marriage" is.

How do your conlangs describe kinship by marriage?

-- 
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/gzb.htm

--- End forwarded message ---