Gender and relationship words

[David Brookshire Conner <nellardo@concentric.net>]

So, spurred on by one of John's postings in conlang, I'm starting to
think about about words for relationships in lojban.

There's words to describe some orientations, rather logically laid out 
(no surprise), such as pavycinglepre (monosexual) and relcinglepre
(bisexual). There's various chains for maternal grandfather and
whatnot.

What I've noticed recently (in English, talking with friends), is that 
there's a whole lot of relationships (at least, for me) that I have or
friends of mine have that just don't have a good word in English.

Maybe it's my relative tyro status, but I'm having some difficulty
coming up with the lojban names for these relationships (clearly, I'm
not thinking in lojban yet).  Yet I have this gut feeling that lojban
can state these things, very precisely.

For example, "transsexual". Female to male? Male to female? Pre or
post-op? If pre, by choice or by situation? In English, some of these
get jargon terms in queer communities (e.g., transman, transwoman).

Another example, in English, the phrase "my wife's girlfriend" is perhaps
startling, but also unclear in meaning - is this just a friend who is
female? Or does my wife sleep with this friend? Is this something that 
is part of our family structure? Or is it something clandestine?

Another example: my friend's child. There's no real way to express
(that I can think of) in English what your relationship is with this
child without a) sounding like a child molester or b) spending a
paragraph or two explaining what is intended. Is this someone I know,
but have no interaction with? Or someone who is a friend of mine as
well? Or someone I think of as a child of my own?


Thoughts? Comments? It seems lojban should be able to do better than
jargon, or lengthy explanations - it's cultural neutrality should
serve it well......


Brook

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http://www.concentric.net/~nellardo/