https://doi.org/10.25312/2391-5137.16/2022_06kt
Katarzyna Tilgner https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6825-001X Akademia Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna w Łodzi
The aim of the article is to compare the development of some family-related vocabulary from Latin (with PIE backgrounds) to Hispano-Romance with the old and modern Polish terms. The comparative analysis covers the words for ‘uncle’/’aunt’, ‘brother/sister-in-law’ and ‘cousins’. The author tries to explain lexical changes with reference to social changes that took place over the centuries.
Keywords: etymology, comparative ethnology, lexical changes, family
Kinship and affinity are lexical fields that attracts the interest of linguists. Their evolution reflects the nature of changes which have taken place within social institutions over time. According to Polish etymologist Aleksander Brückner (1998: 27), kinship and affinity were of great importance in primitive life, hence the abundant, archaic terminology. He adds that languages retain the old names for the closest members while eliminated or ex- changed less important words by more general terms or borrowings from other languages. The objective of this article is to compare the evolution of some Latin kinship and af- finity terms with their Hispano-Romance (HR) derivatives in contrast to the corresponding Polish terms. The analysis which we propose to present may be interesting if we take into
account the words of the American anthropologist and ethnologist Henry L. Morgan who says that Latin and Old Polish had the most abundant kinship and affinity terminology within the IE language family (Morgan, 1997: 40). The two terminological systems, in their old stages, correspond to the Sudanese kinship system where each collateral of Ego’s parents was designated by a specific term. We can admire this ancient richness and its decline analysing the words for ‘uncle’/‘aunt’, ‘brother/‘sister in law’ and ‘cousins’ to whom we want to pay special attention.
Latin, from which Hispano-Romance originated, distinguished cognati ‘relatives by con- sanguinity’ and affines ‘relatives by affinity’. This difference was confused, especially in the language of Christians who used the two words as synonyms. Over time the cognati acquired the meaning of affines.
The Latin terms denoting father and mother siblings are of the Indo-European origin. It should be noted that in relation to ‘aunt’, in the PIE language (Proto-Indo-European), reflecting the Omaha kinship system, only the term for ‘mother’s sister’ *mehatruha can be reconstructed (Mallory, Adams, 1997: 36). It is almost impossible to reconstruct a PIE word for father’s sister. The IE languages show that this designation is derived often from the word for ‘father’ (Mallory, Adams, 1997: 36). In Latin, the term for the father’s sister is probably a derivative from amma ‘mother’ (Walde, 1910: 35; de Vaan, 2008: 38), although it is possible (Muller, 1926: 26) that it is the result of the evolution of the compound *ăm- (< *amma) and the infant’s babble word tătă ‘daddy’. As one might suppose, the Latin terms for ‘father’s brother’ and ‘mother’s sister’ are derivatives of the names for father and mother, hence patruus (pie. *ph2ter ‘father’) and matertĕra (> Lat măter ‘mother’). Isaczenko (Szymczak, 1996: 95) believes that the relation between the PIE words *ph2tr-u- ‘father’s brother’ and *ph2ter ‘father’ testify to the presence of the ancient structure of the family in which the father’s brother was also considered as a father. The history of the term for ‘maternal uncle’ avuncŭlus, the diminutive, which derivates from PIE *h2euh2- ‘grandfather on mother’s side’, raises a lot of discussion. It has been argued that equating a mother’s brother with her father is due to the fact that when the maternal grandfather died, her eldest brother would assume the father’s position and was considered as a potential grandfather (Mallory, Adams, 1997: 411–412).
In spoken Latin the old denominations have been unified: the analysis of the vocab- ulary included in Romanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch shows that only avuncŭlus and amĭta survived in the spoken language of Romania. In addition, a new denomination
of Greek origin thius/thia appeared. We find it in Hispano-Romance where it dominated over time the other terms. It was probably a fancy foreignism used at the beginning only in feminine form which is more open to this type of innovation (Corominas, Pascual, 1983: 501). The inscriptions show that the Greek word eliminated the term avuncŭlus only very late in the Hispano-Romance which however remained in use in some peninsular languages, for example in Catalan oncle (Menéndez Pidal, Lapesa, 2003: 623). The words tius and tia are attested in the texts of the Peninsula of the ninth century: in the codex Becerro Gótico (year 857) of the cathedral of Oviedo we find the masculine „tii nostrii domini Adefonsi” and in the Cartulario de Santa María de puerto de Santoña in 863 the feminine: „per tradictjonem tie nostre Galle” (Menéndez Pidal, Lapesa, 2003: 623). The Glosas Silenses from the middle of the tenth century explain abunculus and matertěra with tio and tia, what confirms that these terms were more understood in some peninsular region (Corominas, Pascual, 1983: 501).
Class. Lat. patrŭus ‘paternal uncle’/ Vulg. Lat. thiu(m) ‘uncle’ > HR tio |
Class. Lat. amĭta ‘paternal aunt’/ Vulg. Lat. thia(m) ‘aunt’ > HR tia |
Class. Lat. avuncŭlus ‘maternal uncle’/ Vulg. Lat. aunculu(m) /HR thiu(m) ‘uncle’ > HR tio |
Class. Lat. matertĕra ‘maternal aunt’/ Vulg. Lat. thia(m) ‘aunt’ > HR tia |
in this area. The denomination most widespread was consobrīnus/a, a term used for any
parents’ siblings’ child of the first degree. The additional terms were used for the child of the father’s side: amitīnus (< amĭta ‘father’s sister) ‘father’s sister child’ and frater or soror patruelis ‘father’s brother’son’, ‘father’s brother’daughter’. De Vaan (2008: 566) proposes the etymology of Lat. consobrinus/a ‘son/daughter of the mother’s sister’ as
*kom+swesrīno/a ‘belonging to the sister’. This etymology reveals that this noun must have originally designated the first-degree cousins of the mother’s sister and only later all the first-degree cousins. The meaning of the first degree was with the passage of time specified by the adjective primus/a which absorbed in Castilian the noun to denominate the cousin. In Hispano-Romance, the derivatives of consobrinus/a are attested in cusino, cosino, ko- sina, kusino (Menéndez Pidal, Lapesa, 2003: 180), for example in the Glosas Silenses of the end of the tenth century: consobrina [cusina]. It was coined the new formations quasi based on the structure con+sobrinus: cum+germanus: cum ‘with’ + germanus/a ‘carnal brother/sister’: coiermano (with different variants) (Menéndez Pidal, Lapesa, 2003: 145), sometimes with addition of the adjective primo. In Notes et documents sur l’histoire du royaume de Léon of the year 935, we read „Pro quod tu, coniermanus meus Froilanem” (ibidem), in the Cartulario de San Vicente de Oviedo of 948: „Ego Vimara Episcopus tibi congermano meo frater Adefonsus, salutem in Domino” (ibidem), in the Tumbo del Monasterio de Celanova of the year 1009: „prima coniermana”.
Mother’s sister’s child Class. Lat. consobrīnus/consobrīna Vulg. Lat. consobrinus /consobrina HR cumiermano (primo)/cumiermana (prima), cusino/cusina |
Mother’s brother’s child Class. Lat. consobrīnus/consobrīna Vulg. Lat. consobrinus /consobrina HR cumiermano (primo)/cumiermana (prima), cusino/cusina |
Father’s sister’s child Class. Lat. consobrīnus/ consobrīna, amitīnus/ amitīna Vulg. Lat. consobrinus/consobrina HR cumiermano (primo)/cumiermana (prima), cusino/cusina |
Father’s brother’s child Class. Lat. consobrīnus/frater patruēlis/soror patruēlis Vulg. Lat. consobrinus/consobrina HR cumiermano (primo)/cumiermana (prima), cusino/cusina |
find in Latin: *daihawer > lēvir ‘husband’s brother’ and *g̑ (e)m(hx)ros > gĕner ‘sister’s husband’ (Mallory, Adams, 1997: 84–85). In the case of the term for ‘sister-in-law’ PIE
made a distinction of three of the persons who may be designated by it. Latin inherited two of them: *g̑ l̥h3wos ‘wife’s sister’ > Lat glōs and *ienh2ter ‘husband’s brother’s wife’
> Lat ianitrĭces ‘wives of brothers’. Only one of these terms, gĕner, survived in Roman languages in the meaning of ‘son-in-law’. In the peninsular area they were replaced by the word cognātus/a (HR cuniato/a > Cast. cuñado/a), originally ‘sprung from the same stock, related by blood, kindred’, and later, in the language of Christian ‘relative by affinity’(Corominas, Pascual, 1984: 294). The Hispano-Romance text of Chartes de l’église de Valpuesta du IXième au XIième siècle enumerated in the year 900 „Germanis, filiis et cognatis” (Menéndez Pidal, Lapesa, 2003: 179). The texts of that period use the term coiermano/a < lat. cum + germanus/a ‘with + carnal brother/sister’ although its meaning is difficult to define (ibidem: 145).
Class. Lat. lēvir ‘husband’s brother’/vulg. Lat cognatu(m) > HR cuniato ‘brother-in-law’ |
Class. Lat. gĕner ‘sister’s husband’/vulg. Lat cognatu(m) > HR cunissdato ‘brother-in-law’ |
Class. Lat. glos ‘wife’s sister’/vulg. Lat cognata(m) > HR cuniata ‘sister-in-law’ |
Class. Lat. ianĭtrices ‘spouses of brothers with each other’ > Vulg. Lat cognate |
The process of the parallelization and the simplification of the bifurcated terminology occurred in late Antiquity and was imposed in the Romance languages (Mitterauer, 2000: 14, 17, 25). The evolution of the old unilineal and agnathic system (blood relationship by male line) and the terminological indistinction of the parallel members of the maternal and paternal family was undoubtedly the consequence of the decline of the matrimonium cum manu, through which the woman passed to depend on the absolute power of her husband, if he was pater families, or to pater families of her husband, losing the right to inheritance from her family of blood. The diffusion of the freer form of marriage, matromonium sine manu, which began to be frequent from the Principality (Betancourt, 2007: 413), was linked to the change in the social position of the woman who retained the right to family inheritance and ceased to belong to her husband’s group. This evolution made it possible for women and their matriline ancestors to have greater importance than before and equal position in the family (Loring García, 2001: 14).
OPol stryj ‘paternal uncle’ > MPol. stryj (rare) wuj, wujek |
OPol ciotka ‘paternal aunt’ > MPol. Ciotka |
OPol wuj ‘maternal uncle’ wuj > MPol. Wuj, wujek |
OPol lela ‘maternal aunt’ / MPol. Ciotka |
The etymology of the word stryj (/str/</ptr/) and wuj (< *h2eu-jo) (Boryś, 2005: 716), common grosso modo with the etymology of Lat patruus and avunculus, reveals the analogical, patriarchal family structure of Latin and ancient Slavic family.
The generalization of the term wuj ‘maternal uncle’ can be considered as the result of the diffusion of the emotionally intense meanings that characterize contacts with maternal relatives and the influence of Christianity and Latin (Szymczak, 1996: 154; Szynkiewicz, 1992: 292). The unification process also affected the name of the maternal and paternal aunt. The generalization of the paternal term, the infant’s babble word ciotka < PSl. teta, however enters in this case in opposition with the just mentioned change of the term for ‘uncle’.
OPol cioteczny brat ‘son of the paternal sister’ > MPol cioteczny brat / kuzyn |
OPol brat wujeczny ‘son of the maternal brother’ > MPol kuzyn |
OPol ciotczany brat ‘son of the maternal sister’ > MPol cioteczny brat / kuzyn |
OPol siostra wujeczna ‘daughter of the maternal sister’ > MPol kuzynka |
OPol ciotczana siostra ‘daughter of the paternal sister’ > MPol cioteczna siostra/ kuzynka |
OPol ciotczana siostra ‘daughter of the maternal sister’ > MPol cioteczna siostra/ kuzynka |
The word kuzyn is the 18th century loan word of the French cousin ‘cousin’ (Szymczak, 1996: 120) which unified in some measure ancient descriptive terms. Some of them re- main however in use.
OPol ‘brother’s wife’ jątrew > MPol bratowa |
OPol ‘sister’s husband’ swak > MPol szwagier |
OPol ‘wife’s brother’ dziewierz > MPol szwagier |
OPol ‘husband’s sister’ zelwa > MPol szwagierka |
OPol ‘wife’s brother’ szurza > MPol szwagier |
OPol ‘wife’s sister’ świeść > MPol szwagierka |
The old rich terminology, richer than in Latin, disappeared with social changes and decomposition of old family living in one community. In consequence, the ancient de- nominations were replaced in successive times by the 16th-century loan from the German word Schwager > MPol. szwagier (Boryś, 2005: 609) which is in use today.
The simplification of the kinship and the affinity terminology is related to the decline of the patriarchal territorial communities called opole which existed in Poland until the end of the 16th-century and beginning of the seventeenth century (Szymczak, 1996: 195–196; Szynkiewicz, 1992: 289–290). Its decomposition led to changes in the character of the family relationships and affected the abundant terminology inherited from the pre-Slavic era. The old terms were replaced by the French and German foreignisms and fell into oblivion.
The changes which occurred in the passage Latin > Hispano-Roman and Old Polish > Modern Polish consisted in the simplification and the unification of the terminology. They had a similar character but took place in a very different time. The both were related to the
social changes and the decline of the archaic patriarchal structure of the family where part of the husband’s family assumed great significance. A similar evolution also happened in other IE languages, which can be confirmed by parallel analysis.
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Celem artykułu jest porównanie rozwoju słownictwa związanego z rodziną w języku polskim i hispano-
-romańskim na tle łacińskim. Analiza porównawcza dotyczy nazw wujka/ciotki, szwagra/szwagierki i kuzynów. Autorka próbuje wytłumaczyć zmiany leksykalne zmianami społecznymi, które miały miejsce na przełomie wieków.
Słowa kluczowe: etymologia, etnologia komparatywna, zmiany leksykalne, rodzina