Dundulanyä thematic wordlists

See also the Calendar and time page.

Kinship terminology

Dundulanyä kinship conceptually follows a variant of the Iroquois system that gives more importance to female relatives on both the mother and the father's side of the family tree, establishing the mother's clan as primary and the father's clan (i.e. the one continued by the father's sisters') as secondary for Ego; the children of either parent's brothers are considered to belong to their respective mothers' clans, without any relationship to Ego.

Such a system is characterized by three peculiarities:

• the children of one's mother's sister(s), as well as any maternal halfsibling, are referred to with the same terms used for biological siblings. In the traditional societal structure, they all belong to the same clan as Ego. Marriage between the Ego and such cousins is taboo and prohibited by law;
• the children of one's father's sister(s) are referred to with a set of "cousin" terms; they all belong to the same clan as Ego's father;
• the children of either parent's brother(s), as well as any paternal halfsibling, are referred to with another, simpler set of "cousin" terms; in traditional perspective, they belong to other clans, with no relationship to Ego^[K.1].

The traditional clanic structure is also reflected by the fact that in Archaic Dundulanyä the same word could mean both "father" and – even more commonly, in earlier times – "mother's brother". In some areas it is still common to call one's mother's brother, as long as he's unmarried, with the same word used for "father".
Mother's brother and father's brother have distinct words, but the words for the father's brother (and his spouse) are nowadays uncommon, and the same words būttra and būkṣāma are used, respectively, for both parents' brothers and their spouses.

The Dundulanyä clan-centric kinship terminology also has implications in affinal distinctions, as spouses of relatives are treated differently depending on clan relationship, and Ego's spouse's relatives, especially cross-generational ones, are also treated differently depending on their clans. Affinal distinctions are different depending on whether Ego is female or male.

• amamū — mother
  • mā, māmu — mom
• atabū or batū — father; (arch.) mother's brother
  • bā, bābu — dad
• niyāni or nyāni or nēni — grandmother, grandma
• bauji or bābuji or boji — grandfather, grandpa
• mamūniyāni — great-grandmother
• batūbauji — great-grandfather
• yoyiniyāni — great-great-grandmother
• yoyibauji — great-great-grandfather
  • Earlier ancestors are numbered, e.g. Ego's great-grandparent's grandma is hälinaika yoyiniyāni (lit. "second great-great-grandmother") whose father is Ego's kiṅkesi yoyibauji (lit. "third great-great-grandfather") and so on.
• māmūtra — mother's sister
  • udhibande — mother's sister's spouse
• melahbūla — father's sister
  • kubḍande — father's sister's spouse
• būttra — uncle; (formally) mother's brother; (arch.) father
  • būkṣāma — uncle's spouse; (formally) mother's brother's spouse
• kāḫlan — (rare) father's brother
  • kāḫṛnīma — (rare) father's brother's spouse
• maiha — daughter; offspring, Ego's child
• p̃aiṣu — son
• liṭīca — granddaughter
• läṭine — grandson
  • Further descendants are numbered, e.g. hälinaika liṭīca "great-granddaughter" (lit. "second granddaughter") etc.

See also the grammar section about second person pronouns, as kinship degrees influence the pronominal form used for other people.

Siblings and cousins

• ñältah — (male's) sister; sister; sibling; maternal aunt's daughter
• buneya — female's elder sister; maternal aunt's daughter, older than Ego
• kālike — female's younger sister; maternal aunt's daughter, younger than Ego
• glūḫam — (female's) brother; maternal aunt's son
• praśke — male's elder brother; maternal aunt's son, older than Ego
• naiḍe — male's younger brother; maternal aunt's son, younger than Ego
• būlañältah — (male's) paternal aunt's daughter
• būlabuneya — paternal aunt's daughter, older than a female Ego
• būlakālike — paternal aunt's daughter, younger than a female Ego
• būlaglūḫam — (female's) paternal aunt's son
• būlapraśke — paternal aunt's son, older than a male Ego
• būlanaiḍe — paternal aunt's son, younger than a male Ego
• tuṃsīca — daughter of one's parent's brother
• toṃsine (III abl.) — son of one's parent's brother

The following four couplets are used for siblings' children:

• nimīca — (F) older sister's daughter
• nämine (V abl.) — (F) older sister's son
• trīca — (F) younger sister's daughter / (M) sister's daughter
• tarine (I abl.) — (F) younger sister's son / (M) sister's son
• kiḍīca — (M) older brother's daughter
• käḍine (V abl.) — (M) older brother's son
• huɂīca — (M) younger brother's daughter / (F) brother's daughter
• hoɂine (III abl.) — (M) younger brother's son / (F) brother's son

Affinal relationships

• lalāba — wife
• śuthah (ṛ-stem) — husband
• umāgi — mother-in-law
• umausa — father-in-law
• lāmati — husband's sister
  • lāṅgana — husband's sister's spouse
• śuthṝṣra — husband's brother
  • śuthṝṣārya — husband's brother's spouse
• udhilalāba — wife's sister
• udhilalonde — wife's sister's spouse
• gānoḍa — wife's brother
• gānojāma — wife's brother's spouse

Clothing

When talking about clothing, Dundulanyä does not have a single verb for "to wear", "to put on", or "to take off" when related to clothing: instead, there is a subset of positional-classificatory verbs dependent on the part of the body the piece of clothing is worn on.

Unlike other positional-classificatory verbs, most of these verbs are not root verbs, but are formed with otherwise no longer productive denominal derivations (-ā- or a chroneme).

These verbs are completely regular and built in a logical way and are always used with a specific positional prefix (see, however, the "long sleeves" and "blanket" verbs, which have the same root but a different prefix).

"To wear" and "to be wearing" may be expressed most commonly with the perfect form, but sometimes the patient-trigger forms are interpreted this way; the frequentative is always used with this meaning. "To put on" is commonly emphasized by using the agent trigger; as shown above, "to put off" is expressed by using the ablative motion marker -y-.

Everyday goods, tools and machines

• bhuṭa — soap
• dūṇe — box
• jṛṣṇa — sack, backpack, rucksack
  • jorañjṛṣṇa — backpack, rucksack
• kuḍraṇilte — mirror
• kuṃṣa — pillow
• lällu — candle
• rūlvēve (duale tantum) — scissors
• savuṣa (III abl.) — clip, hair clip; paperclip
  • nūlisavuṣa (III abl.) — paperclip
• sūṃsirma — hairdryer
• sūṃsrūkha — hair brush
• ṣaufe — sheet, bedcloth, bedsheet
• tajñuḍu — cloth, washcloth
• tuśpe — bucket, barrel
• vikṣlipa — deodorant, air freshener
• yasambände — dental floss
• yasammäɂa — toothpaste
• yasaṃsrūkha — toothbrush

Education

• yajapa, śoddāmaha — school
• lallalīddai (plurale tantum) — higher learning; university, college
• ijah (√ij-) (VI) — to learn; to get used to, acquaint oneself with
• līdah (√līd-) (no ab.) — to teach
• līdade — teacher
  • lallalīdade — professor (less commonly camilīdade or kuḍimāṃlila)
• līdda — teaching, a lesson
• līduḍu — lesson, a single lesson, lecture, school hour
• līdūlte — textbook, manual, teaching material
• padalīdanah — class, course (in higher learning); (ext.) all the students attending a given class
• padalītse — student, learner (in higher learning)
• tatsampra — subject
• yajaje — learner (in school), schoolchild, student
  • yajajeṣa — class, group of students
• yajapimapa — school canteen