Kinship terminology in the greater Hindu Kush

Abstract: This is a study of the kinship terminology used for one’s parents and their siblings in the languages in the greater Hindu Kush area (GHK). GHK stretches over the mountainous borderlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, China and India and homes a range of various languages from six different genera, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani, Turkic, Tibeto-Burman, and the language isolate Burushaski. The study is based on questionnaires from native speakers of 55 language varieties collected in 2015-2017. The main distinction is one between descriptive and merging systems. The descriptive system have separate terms for all six relations and are found in the outer areas of GHK. The merging systems have terms that refer to two or more relations, and these are found in the center of the area. Within this center-area the languages are then further divided into six different terminologies depending on which relations are merged with one term. Semantic clusters can be observed, based on systematic and lexico-semantic parallels, both within and across family lines. The distribution is discussed from a historical, geographical and social point of view.