East Baltic “father-in-law” and “mother-in-law”

Abstract

The present contribution studies the Baltic kinship terminology, focusing on terms related to “parents-in-law”. Among them, one term is not transparent from the point of view of internal structure, nor etymology: Lithuanian m. úošvis ‘father-in-law, husband’s father’, f. úošvė ‘mother-in-law, husband’s mother’ and Latvian m. uôsis, f. uôse id. A new etymology operates with an East Baltic innovation, which assumes the primary determinative compound extended by the suffix *-ii̯o-/*-ii̯ā-. The first component would be represented by the IE kinship term *h₂eu̯h₂o- ‘maternal grandfather’, continuing in Baltic in its derivative ‘maternal uncle’. For the second component, there would be two alternative possibilities: 1) Proto-Baltic *su̯eśru- *‘mother-in-law’ + -ā; 2) Proto-Baltic *śei̯u̯ā ‘wife’.