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2. The personal names of married persons are never used by the Central Nzemi, either in address or in the third person. The expressions "father of so-and-so", "mother of so-and-so", using the name of the eldest unmarried child, are employed instead. Similar circumlocutions, using other relationship terms, are employed when referring to persons married but childless. The correct kinship terms are used in address whenever applicable, but amakpeo (wife's brother) is used in address only to the wife's more distant classificatory brothers. The wife's brother (sibling) and her father's brother's sons are addressed as mulu and referred to as amakpeo only in the third person. The terms apao (grandfather or wife's father), asi (elder brother), ana (child) and atsa (grandchild or wife's brother's child) are used as courtesy terms of address to unrelated persons regardless of moiety, where a perceptible difference in age makes the terms aza and mulu inapplicable. The terms here given in the masculine form, but there are also feminine equivalents. |
