kinship systems (*aya = "aunt"?)

Piotr:

> Ancient Greek aia did exist, but it was a rare dialectal word >meaning
>'aunt' or 'nurse' ('tethis'/'maia'), more likely a nursery >term than
>anything corresponding to Latin avia. One could imagine it >to be the
>feminine counterpart of Slavic ujI (< *xaux-j-os) 'uncle') >but on such
>meagre evidence that would be a leap of faith. I've no >idea where Cyril
>took the 'grandmother' interpretation from; >presumably somebody mixed
>"aia" up with a family of words derived from >a(i)ei 'ever, always, etc.;
>eternity' (< PIE *xaiw-, cf. Latin aevum).

Actually, it's interesting to note that forms like *aya seem to pop up in
Nostratic studies. Bomhard lists:

#445 ?ay(y)- "mother, female relative"
AfroAsiatic *?ay(y)- "mother"
Proto-Inuktitut *ayak "maternal aunt"
Dravidian *a:(y)-
IndoEuropean *?ay-t- "mother"

But then, I'm not sure where the AfroAsiatic reconstruction comes from.
Notice too the supposed IE form (Can anyone help me figure out what this
reconstruction is based on?).

- gLeN
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