Aymara's time metaphor reversed?

Salinas17 at aol.com Salinas17 at aol.com
Thu Jun 15 13:31:59 UTC 2006


In a message dated 6/14/06 11:54:43 AM, phonosemantics at earthlink.net writes:
<< Apparently Aymara is the only (so far) documented language whose speakers 
view the past as being ahead and the future behind. The terms NAYRA 'eye, 
front, sight' is grammaticalized to mean 'past', while QHIPA 'back, behind' is 
used for 'future'. >>

Of course, if this were to be taken literally, it would be a ridiculously 
impractical perceptual system, so we can be pretty sure we should not take it 
literally.

It's a good rule of thumb that linguistic should not lose all touch with 
reality.

If I asked an Aymaran when dinner would be ready, I don't think he would act 
as if it already happened.  Such an approach would leave one very suceptible 
to starvation.  The arrow of time is not subjective, no matter how we talk 
about it.

Of course, metaphor, irony and the juggling of tense can rearrange elements 
so an outsider just doesn't get it.  I have to look backward to look forward, 
because experience is my main guide to the future.  If I use an icon to 
communicate this, I may leave out expressing why I am searching my memory, but that 
does not mean that the future IS a memory.

If the Aymarans are evading the physical rules of time and cause and effect, 
I want one to go to the race track with me as soon as possible.  I'll split my 
Trifecta winnings with any competent translator.

However, unless the Aymarans are all employed as fortune tellers or quantum 
physicists, there's no reason to attribute this to anything but a not 
altogether unusual, random historical shift in the meaning of words.  To a culture 
where "bad" can mean "good" and "cool" can mean "hot," this should be no surprise.

Regards,
Steve Long



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