An Australian kinship affix *-rti
David Nash
ANU, AIATSIS
Abstract
In various Australian languages there are one or two, sometimes more,
kinship terms ending in -rti or -rtu. Comparative evidence is
marshalled which bears on the historical question as to the endingUs
source. The most likely possibility, that the ending derives from a
pronominal suffix denoting propositus, receives best support from its
occurrence in the Gulf language Mara, which in turn raises questions
about the prehistory of the relevant linguistic groups.
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