Chapter 6

Specific kinships are such as "paternal uncle" or "maternal uncle," as distinguished from the general term "uncle." The phrase "first cousin" covers no less than eight specific kinships (four male and four female), not taking the issue of mixed marriages into account. Specific kinships are briefly expressed by a nomenclature in which _fa_, _me_, _bro_, _si_, _son_, _da_, _Hu_, _Wi_, stand respectively for _father_, _mother_, _brother_, _sister_, _son_, _daughter_, _Husband_, _Wife_. Each of these syllables is supposed to have the possessive _'s_ added to it whenever it is followed by another syllable of the set, or by the word _is_ when it is not. _Example_: Let the person from whom the kinships are reckoned be called _P_, and let _Q_ and _R_ be two of _P_'s kinsfolk, described respectively as _fa bro_ and _me si son_. That means that _P's father's brother_ is _Q_, and that _P's mother's sister's son_ is _R_. It is a simple and easily intelligible nomenclature, and replaces intolerable verbiage in the description of distant kinships. My correspondents used it freely, and none of them spoke of any difficulty in understanding it. Its somewhat babyish sound is soon disregarded.

TABLE IV.--ABBREVIATIONS. ______________________________________________________________________ | | | | Males. | Females. | |_________________________________|____________________________________| | | | | Grandfather, paternal _fa fa_ | Grandmother, paternal _fa me_ | | " maternal _me fa_ | " maternal _me me_ | | Father _fa_ | Mother _me_ | | Uncle, paternal _fa bro_ | Aunt, paternal _fa si_ | | " maternal _me bro_ | " maternal _me si_ | | | | | Brother _bro_ | Sister _si_ | | | | | Son _son_ | Daughter _da_ | | Nephew, brother's son _bro son_ | Niece, brother's daughter _bro da_ | | Nephew, sister's son _si son_ | Niece, sister's daughter _si da_ | | | | | Male first cousins: | Female first cousins: | | 1. Son of paternal | 1. Dau. of paternal | | uncle _fa bro son_ | uncle _fa bro da_ | | 2. Son of maternal | 2. Dau. of maternal | | uncle _me bro son_ | uncle _me bro da_ | | 3. Son of paternal | 3. Dau. of paternal | | aunt _fa si son_ | aunt _fa si da_ | | 4. Son of maternal | 4. Dau. of maternal | | aunt _me si son_ | aunt _me si da_ | |_________________________________|____________________________________|

Those relationships that are expressed by different combinations of these letters differ _specifically_; therefore, in saying, in the next chapter, that each person has "roughly, on the average, one fertile relative in each and every form of specific kinship," it means in each and every combination of the above syllables that is practically possible.

Relationship may also be expressed conveniently for some purposes in Degrees of remoteness, the number of the Degree being that of the number of syllables used to express the specific kinship.