Re: kinship systems

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "John Croft" <jdcroft@...> wrote:

> "Marc Verhaegen" <marc.verhaegen@...>
> wrote:
> > OK, thanks! As always, very informative! --Marc
> > It was indeed ava in later Latin. But it's a good point:
> the
> derivation is not so straightforward as that of lupa or equa (after
> all, a grandmother is not simply a female grandfather). Avia is of
> adjectival origin (< 'belonging to a grandfather'), like patria

from

> pater (another such pair is patri:tus 'inherited from one's father'
> and avi:tus 'ancestral'). However, the most important point is

this:

> both avus and av(i)a refer indiscriminately to paternal and

maternal

> grandparents.
> >
> > Piotr
>
> Cyril I think speaks of Proto-Greek *aia as Grandmother. Could

this

> be from the same source?
>
> John

I think it would have to be something like *aFia (where 'F', or
digamma, is a /w/, like the Latin 'v'). This sound was usually lost
early.

Jeff