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Lesson 38

Family Relationships




      Family relationships, both by blood and through marriage, between 
      individuals are discribed in Tigre as follows:
      
   I  singular             plural
       -------------------------------------------------
       em       mother      emat       
       ab       father      abawu/abach  (both are correct)
       Ht       sister      Hawat
       Hu       brother     Hawu
       abot   grandmother   abotat
       abEb   grandfather   abEbotat
       --------------------------------------------------
       In English uncle and aunt are used for equally for both from the 
       father's and mother's side, but in tgre there is a differentiation 
   
   II  singular                             plural
   
       Hel    aunt = sister to mother       Heltotat
       Amet   aunt = sister to father       Amotat
       Hal    uncle= brother to mother      Halotat
       Hu ab  uncle= brother to father      Hawu ab
     
       No specific words for nephew , niece , and cousin
      
       welet Hu ab    cousin ( daughter of father's brother)
       wed   Hu ab    cousin ( son      of fathers brother)
      
       welet Hal      cousin ( daughter of mother's brother)
       wed   Hal      cousin (  son     "   "        "   )     

       welet Ht       niece   ( daughter of a sister)
       wed   Ht       nephew  ( son of a sister)
      
       welet Hu      niece    ( daughter of a brother)
       wed Hu        nephew   ( son of a brother )
       --------------------------------------------------------
       Relations of in-laws are as follow :
       
 III   Esit              wife
       b's               husband
       Hema              first wife
       wed bkr           first son
       welet bkr         first daughter
       wed Hdegat ede    last son
       welet Hdegat ede  last daughter
       
       Hamat             mother in law
       Ham               father in law
       Ad Ham            family of in laws
       zema              brother in law
       zemayt            sister in law
       telakm            brother in law to wife i.e. 
                         brother of the husband is a "telakm" to the wife
       neAl              sister in law to wife i.e.
                         sister of husband is "neAl" to the wife
       Hano              two men married to two sisters are Hano to each 
                         other
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 IV    Among the Tigre people "em" or "ab" followed by the name of the
       first daughter or son is a common polite form of addressing people
       example :

         em afraH    mother of Afrah
         ab afraH    father of Afrah
         em ebrahim  mother of Ibrahim
         ab Usman    father of Osman
*************************************************
End of Lesson 38

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