2014(ISBN978-5-209-06290-5) FAMILY STRUCTURE AND KINSHIP TERMS IN THE ARABIC TRADITION Mohammed Al Fuadi Philological Faculty Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Miklukho-Maklay str., 6, Moscow, Russia. 117198 The article treats the historic and social background for kinship terms in the Arabic language as reflected in everyday life and in the Quran. The religious canon helps to understand the hierarchy of kinship terms and traditional family types and relations. Key words: kinship terms, Quran, family relations, family types, social norms. Introduction Language is tied very much to the existence of the culture in which it is used and developed. Kinship is the most basic principle of organizing individuals into social groups, roles, and categories. In every human society, there is some form of organization based on parentage and marriage. Kinship may described as the bond of relationship created by procreation and defined by society, and the conception of what constitutes kin, will, therefore, be found to vary according to the social organization of the community in which the term is applied. Many societies construct kinship groupings, roles, and relationships by tracing descent exclusively through the male patrilineal line, or female- matrilineal one. The use of kinship term in Arabic reflects the traditional points of view through which Arabs look at their levels of closeness to their relatives and the tendency of Arabic mentality towards drawing a very clear distinction between kinship relations that are expressed similarly in English, for example: Kinship terms in Arabic In Arabic like many other languages (German, Thai, etc.), has a male/female distinction for the cousin, nephew, aunt, uncle. As well the Arabic language distinguishes between relatives on the father's and mother's side distinction which English lacks [Hatch and Brown, 1995: 33-6; Krifka, 2001: 1]. This can be attributed to the fact that the English