The Vocative Use of Kinship Terminology among Arab Muslim : A Case Study of a North Jordanian Village

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present some cases of the vocative use of kinship terminology in the village of Kufr Yuba: in North Jordan, and to attempt an analysis of the fictive vocative of such terminology in comparison with that of other parts of historical Syria (Bilad al-Sham). The fieldwork on which this article is based was carried out in the years 1986-1988 when I was a research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid. Kufr Yuba:, described in another paper In this journal (vol.54, no.2), is an Arab Muslim village located about six kilometers west of the city of lrbid. Table 1 shows the vocative kinship terms used by the people of Kufr Yuba. In actual use the Arabic particle yd is sornetimes followed by these terms, except for ydba and yumma. Also, terms ending in i are suffixed with the Arabic pronoun i meaning "my" Other comments are as follows (the numbers refer to the kinshlp terms in Table 1): l, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 If an addressee is elderly, he or she can be addressed as hajj (male) or as hajja (female); haj and hajja are originally titles reserved for one who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca. 11, 12, 13, 14 According to the practice of teknonymy, a married person is as a rule addressed as 'abu ... (father of...) or as 'umm ... (mother of...) where (...) indicates the name of his or her first child after it is born. This rule applies to his or her brothers and sisters if they are married and have a child. Brothers and sisters, however, usually address each other by their personal names when they talk by themselves or in the presence of their family. 15 -16 When a married son has a child, he can be addressed as 'abu... Although she is usually addressed by her personal name at home, she is usually addressed as yaba outside the house. When a married daughter has a child, she can be addressed as 'umm ...