The Detroit Free Press reported recently that a man invented and trying to popularize a term for nieces and nephews, although it’s clear that the word sofralia has an uphill battle. English doesn’t have a specific, fixed term for those relatives, although some people have tried to popularize the term nieflings. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Sofralia”
Rant. I came across an article that I think will amuse you. It ran in the Detroit Free Press, but for a minute there, I thought it was in the Onion. Oh, the headline is, you’re gonna love this: Oak Park man invents word for nieces and nephews.
Oh, I saw that. I did see that. They were so excited for him. They were so excited.
I’m kind of excited for him, too.
You are?
A little bit.
I mean, yeah.
Oh.
What was his word, though?
I don’t remember his word.
His word is sofralia.
Oh, yeah. That’s why I don’t remember it.
Yeah, it’s S-O-F-R-A-L-I-A, sofralia. And this is Attorney Rabbi Schnur Stephen Poulter, who came up with this.
I was just so surprised that a newspaper would pick up on this effort to create a word and then popularize it. He says that he’s trying to get the dictionaries to pick it up, but he hasn’t gotten much momentum.
And what I also loved was that the newspaper went to a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan who said that sophralia doesn’t make sense. It’s an invented word based on Latin words, but it’s not a Latin formation.
It’s a made-up word, and it’s okay to make up words if he wants to. Fine, but no one would get much help from the Latin for this.
And she also adds that maybe he would like to use the German word for this, which is Geschwisterkind.
I like that.
I didn’t know that word, Geschwisterkind. I think they’re both not going to make it in English, really.
You think?
Yeah, the most popular coinage that I know, which has been coined multiple times for nieces and nephews together, is Nieflings.
That’s what I use.
I love it.
Yeah, Nieflings. But the argument kind of is if we needed the word, we’d already have it.
Right.
And as families get smaller in America, we have less and less need for it.
Need for Neiflings?
Need for Neiflings.
I still like Neiflings.
Yeah, good one, right?
Except when they grow up.
Why?
Well, I think of Neiflings as these little things, you know, running around, but I don’t know about adult Neiflings.
Maybe they’re just Neifs.
My Neifs.
My Neifles.
I like it.
Well, Rabbi, good luck.
Good luck.
Sofralia catches on.
We’re doing our best.
More of us need to find windmills to tilt that. It keeps life interesting.
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