Láadan/Lessons/12

Introduction

Inter-personal relationships can be described in much more detail, and with many fewer words, in Láadan.

Family relationships

Láadan	Description
shinehothul	great-grandmother
hothul	grandmother
shathul	mother (formal term; honored mother)
mathul	mother (intimate, informal)
emath	mother, mama (intimate, informal)
hena	sibling by birth
héena	sibling of the heart
rahéena	non-heart-sibling; completely incompatible with another, no hope of ever achieving some understanding.
yáawith	teenager
háawith	child
áwith	baby
hoówith	granddaughter
shinehóowith	great-granddaughter
berídan	aunt
hoberídan	great-aunt

You can use the suffix "-id" to explicitly specify maleness.

Remember that Possession markers can also be used.

Love

Láadan	Description
áayáa	mysterious love, not yet known to be welcome or unwelcome
áazh	love for one sexually desired at one time, but not now
ab	love for one liked but not respected
ad	love for one respected but not liked
am	love for one related by blood
ashon	love for one not related by blood, but kin of the heart
aye	love that is unwelcome and a burden
azh	love for one sexually desired now
éeme	love for one neither liked nor respected
oham	love for that which is holy
sham	love for the child of one's body, presupposing neither liking nor respect nor their absence

(Suzette Haden Elgin (1988), A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan, Second Edition, p. 136)

Pronouns

The standard pronouns can also be altered to indicate feeling toward them. Recall the basic pronouns:

Voice	Singular	Plural, 2 to 5	Plural, 6 or more
First Person ("I")	Le	Lezh	Len
Second Person ("You")	Ne	Nezh	Nen
Third Person ("He", "She")	Be	Bezh	Ben

And rules for adding feeling:

• Beloved - change the "e" vowel with "a". la, lazh, lan, ba, bazh, ban, na, nazh, nan
• Honored - change the "e" vowel with "i". li, lizh, lin, bi, bizh, bin, ni, nizh, nin
• Despised - add "lhe-" to the beginning. lhele, lhelezh, lhelen, lhebe, lhebezh, lheben, lhene, lhenezh, lhenen