Teknonymy
Comments: 8
From A Word a Day comes this:
teknonym (TEK-nuh-nim) noun: A name derived from a child’s name that is used to address a parent. For example, Johnsdad (as opposed to Johnson).
The definition is accompanied by a quotation from Karen J. Brison’s Constructing Identity Through Ceremonial Language in Rural Fiji:
Informants spoke at great length about how respectful Fijian practice requires avoiding using the personal names of certain categories of people (or even avoiding their presence altogether). Once people have children, for instance, they are to be addressed by the teknonym ‘father of’ or ‘mother of’ their eldest child.
This is interesting because a form of teknonymy occurs in Japanese and now I know what it’s called (the first step to wisdom, Confucius used to tell me, is getting the names of things).
My daughter’s name is Jun and when we’re with other parents from school I’m usually called Jun-chan no Papa (Jun’s Papa. If a greater degree of formality is required then I’m Jun-chan no otou-san — Jun’s father). The possessive particle “no” can be dropped, so I’m Jun-chan Papa among friends. (Chan is a diminutive suffix for children. Boys often get the masculine kun, especially as they get older.)
This came as quite a jolt to me when I first heard it because my name was known to the people using the teknonym and, coming from a language and society where (ostensibly at least) the individual is the irreducible unit, I was curious that “I” had disappeared, replaced by “I-via-another” (and a child at that!). Now I think it’s cute — and useful.
Teknonymy elegantly solves an interesting problem in Japanese: when the father of a child is “Aoki-san” and the mother of a child is also “Aoki-san,” how do you refer to each when in the presence of both of them (in a language where first names are rarely used at this level of intimacy)? Spouses can use each other’s first names (they’ll also use teknonyms for each other when speaking to others) but for anyone else to do so would most often be presumptuous. Teknonymy — and A Word a Day — to the rescue.
•••
Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2003.05.08 (Thu) • 21:29
Comments
Posted by pete 2003.05.08, 22:51
language is a much underrated thing. western language use has almost become entirely aggressive in my opinion (see?). when I was younger I much preferred ‘straight’ talking; telling it how it was not matter the bluntness of the language used. as I get older, I find myself becoming more and more interested in language and how it’s used around the world. this post about teknonyms is one such example of this. Being addressed as the father of your child in such a way is quite stunning; and it must be very humbling in a certain way. fascinating.
thanks Jeremy.
Posted by Creator-of-Waffle 2003.05.09, 01:49
Woah, that’s quite interesting.
Posted by One Gin n Tonic so far 2003.05.09, 17:21
Jeremy, thankyou for your Japanese linguistic lesson for the day, very informative indeed. I have studied Japanese for 5 years but rarely get the chance to use it - contrary to my school teacher’s forecasts, the Japanese are too humble to take over the world.
Keep the linguistical analysis coming, it’s insightful stuff.
Posted by Jeff 2003.05.10, 01:07
Interesting to put a “label” to a practice —one that I am oh-so-familiar with here in the States.
I am constantly being addressed in this way by my younger daughter’s classmates (not the parents). It’s a no-nonsense direct approach for 5 year olds who haven’t learned to address adults either by their first name or as Mr. So and So.
It’s learning language in action as they’ve simply found the most efficient way of categorizing parents of their classmates!
Posted by qB 2003.05.10, 09:18
It’s common in African languages too, but more often for the mother than the father. The mother is known as “mother of name-of-eldest-child” unless the eldest is a girl and there are boys when she becomes “mother of “name-of-eldest-son”.
Is this the case in Japanese too, or is the name of the child used dependent on the context?
(I get “Word A Day” too, and a very fine thing it is)
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2003.05.16, 06:59
I was going to say what Jeff said but he already said it. Still, it is a common practice in the states and I rather liked being Joseph’s mom, if only because it put another layer of anonymity between me and the PTA. Nor did I ever learn any of the other parent’s names. Our relationship was only through our children and I had no desire to dig deeper.
Posted by Adam Rice 2003.05.20, 07:36
Interestingly, the NY Times had an “on language” column on this yesterday: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/magazine/18ONLANGUAGE.html (login required, get it while it’s hot because the archives are for-pay after a few days)
Teknonymy fits well with the Japanese habit of indirect address—obvious things like calling your boss “buchou” instead of “Tanaka-san, less obvious things like “sochira”, “uchi”, etc.
But what do you call teknonymy in Japanese?
Posted by roxy6335 2006.09.08, 02:06
this is also the case in korean traditions. although, sometimes, the mother will simply be called the same name as the oldest female sibling… i’m not sure about the father being called the same name as the oldest male sibling, since i only have sisters…
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
