Note 26 — Chapter I · THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION

In the Aka-Bea and Akar-Bale languages (as also in A-Pučikwar and Aka-Ko̱l) a man always addresses his grandparent or his father-in-law or mother-in-law by the term Mama or Mamola. He is therefore able to refer to these persons by adding the personal pronoun to the term of address, as dege mama in Akar-Bale. This cannot, however, be regarded as properly a term denoting relationship, for a man may apply the term Mama to a man or woman to whom he is not related at all26.