Kinship Terminologies of the Circum-Baltic Area

Convergences and Structural Properties

Bibliographic Data

ID12987551
AuthorsVeronika Milanova (0009-0009-0372-4278, Institute of Iranian Studies, corresponding author), Niklas Metsäranta (0000-0002-1442-6809, University of Helsinki), Terhi Honkola (0000-0002-3330-0857, University of Helsinki)
Year2024
Volume17
Issue2
Pages315-358
Publication date2024-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Language Contact (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1955-2629 • E-ISSN: 1877-4091
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/19552629-bja10079
OpenAlexW4402657656
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

Contact and areal studies of kinship terminologies have by now received too little attention in social anthropology and linguistics. To fill in one of numerous research gaps, we investigated kinship terminologies of the Circum-Baltic ( CB ) area. We discovered many heterogeneous overlapping micro- and macro-convergences belonging to different temporal strata and contact situations. This was especially the case with loanwords, whereas certain calques had a wider spread covering most of the CB area. It suggests that semantic patterns may be more prone to borrowing than lexical items. The analysis of structural properties showed that CB kinship terminologies combine both West European and East European/West Asian strategies. It indicates that CB kinship terminologies indeed possess a marked combination of properties. However, most of them are shared with their neighbours, which confirms that the CB area is a Contact Superposition Zone as suggested in Koptjevskaja-Tamm and Wälchli (2001)

Genealogy · Geography · Kinship · Linguistics · Sociology · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Anthropology · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy