Andorian Word for Grandfather

[Captain Clark Terrell]

I've recently started writing a fan fiction series that features an Andorian character who's grandfather served in Starfleet and wanted to be sure I used the correct terminology to describe their relationship given the four known genders of the Andorian people. Would it be correct to refer to one's grandfather with the prefix grand followed by either thavan or charan, or is there another designation I'm not familiar with? Thanks!

--Sran

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Seeing as how there are some diverse and different names for parents, children and in-laws then I'd suspect that grandparents would have their own unique names too.

However, you'd have to be careful, as each child would have four parents and sixteen grandparents. Would the title be the same for each (would its zhaney's thavan be the same as its charan's thavan, or would each set of grandparents have their own prefixes)?

For example would the grandparent titles be something like:
cho'chathan, cho'shethen, cho'thathan, cho'zhethen
shu'chathan, shu'shethen, shu'thathan, shu'zhethen
tho'chathan, tho'shethen, tho'thathan, tho'zhethen
zhu'chathan, zhu'shethen, zhu'thathan, zhu'zhethen

Or would it be just: chathan, shethen, thathan, zhethen. Of course those titles are just something I made up right now.

 

[Therin of Andor]

IIRC, it is common for adult Andorians to maintain close contact with their zhavey (birth mother), but the other three parents often move on after their societal commitment to produce offspring has been fulfilled for that bondgroup. Assuming their other parents have also moved on, the most likely grandparent to stay on, and to be influential to the grandchild, would be the zhavey's zhavey.

"Grand" doesn't sound very Andorian. Perhaps invent a term, and it may end up getting used in a novel some day, as happened with my own Therin in 1980 (who is now two tie-in characters, two parks and a warship in the tie-in novels!)

There is the Grand Staircase, of course, which is a location on the planet Andoria located at the city of Harbortown, but those would be Anglicised versions of the local terms. ["Worlds of DS9: Andor: Paradigm" by Heather Jarman.]

http://andorfiles.blogspot.com/