Limli Culture: Family

Table of Phonemes

POA	labial					dental				alveolar		palatal					glottal			vowels
IPA	/m/	/φ/	/β/	/w/		/n/	/t/	/l/		/s/		/ŋ/	/k/	/ɣ/	/j/		/h/			/ä/	/e/	/o/	/u/	/i/
Latin	m	f	v	w		n	t	l		s		ń	k	ǵ	y		h			a	e	o	u	i
Hangul	ㅁ	ㅍ	ㅂ	1		ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ		ㅅ		ㄲ	ㄱ	ㅋ	2		ㅎ			아	에	오	우	이
Name	Mi 미	Fi 피	Vi 비	Wi 위		Ni 니	Ti 디	Li 리		Si 시		Ńi 끼	Ki 기	Ǵi 키	Yi 의		Hi 히			a 아	e 에	o 오	u 우	i 이

Notes

• ¹ The compound vowels are used for <w>, e.g., ㅘ, wa.
• ² The iotified vowels are used for <y>, e.g., 요, yo.

Family life - Heyimi ńiwu ya 허의미 끼ᆃ 야

• Children are named after items found in nature (star, flower, bird, etc.) or after human attributes (strength, joy, etc.). The prefix sili- may be used to indicate resemblance, e.g., silińimo, like a bird. The prefix semo- may be used to indicate full of a quality, e.g., semoǵuwu, beautiful.

Family size - Heyimi mohu ya 허의미 모후 야

• The Limli village (lete) consists of several families.
• Limli families (heyimi) will have from two to four children (laulu). The family unit consists of the father (wińi) and mother (aka) and their minor children. If the father is the oldest son, he may also have his parents (ńifoli) living with them.

Inheritance - Fesu ya 퍼수 야

• The Limli have an ambilineal society. Sons inherit their father's belongings; daughters inherit their mother's belongings.

Kinship system - '

• The kinship system used by the Limli is very simple. There are only two generations, parent and child. A person refers to all females of his parents' generation as "Mother" and all of the males as "Father". In the child's generation, all brothers and male cousins are referred to as "Brother", all sisters and female cousins as "Sister".
• Six words are used to describe these familial relations.

wińi, father.

aka, mother.

fińi, son.

niufu, daughter.

ove, brother.

ufi, sister.

• Other relations are translated by modifying one of these four with another, e.g., aunt is rendered as wińi ufi, father sister, or aka ufi, mother sister.
• With respect to marriage, ńita, marry, is used; (ńita) lima, husband, and (ńita) sisu, wife.
• In-laws are named with the modifying noun; sisu wińi, father-in-law.

Limli Culture: Customs