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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Dear Horia, </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">In Dalabon, an Australian language of the Gunwinyguan family (non-Pama-nyungan), there are specific terms for the left hand and the right hand, as follows:</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><i>bala-weh</i> 'left hand'</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">HAND-bad</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><i>bala-mon</i> 'right hand'</p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">HAND-good</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><i>bala </i>is no longer used with this sense 'hand' outside of these compounds (hand/finger is
<i>langu</i>). </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Dalabon uses cardinals and geocentric terms to indicate directions, and I have not observed that
<i>bala-weh </i>and <i>bala-mon </i>were used for this. In fact, when communicating in English with older Dalabon speakers, the terms 'left' and 'right' were usually not helpful to convey information about spatial orientation. </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><i>bala-mon</i> and <i>bala-weh </i>are not used to talk about omen or fortune either. </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">So these expressions strictly designate each hand as a body part. Given that a vast proportion of the population is right-handed, these compounds are basically conveniently descriptive for a majority of people. </p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Good luck with your research and kind regards, </p>
<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0">Maďa</p>
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<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, serif, EmojiFont;">Dr Maďa Ponsonnet</span><br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Horia Calugareanu <horia.calugareanu@gmail.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 28 February 2019 8:22 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] Languages with connotations for 'left' and 'right'</font>
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<div dir="ltr">Dear colleagues,<br>
<br>
I am putting together a semantic typology in order to test the following hypothesis:<br>
<br>
Across languages, the word for left (side/direction) (or some derivation of it) tends to get a negative connotation, whereas the word for ‘right’ gets a positive one, if the effect exists.<br>
<br>
Apart from Indo-European languages, where the effect is widely present, this is a non-exhaustive list of languages which prove the thesis: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, Fula, Golpa, Hungarian, Malay, Turkish.<br>
<br>
Do you know of any other (preferably non-Indo-European) languages which help confirm or infirm the generalisation?<br>
<br>
Finally, I am also researching whether the effect holds anyhow in languages with allocentric frames of reference (i.e. uphill/downhill, or north/south, instead of left/right). I haven’t been able to find any due to scarce resources, but some examples of languages
with non-egocentric FoR are Tseltal, Haillom, Guugu Yimitirr, Kuuk Thaayorre. <br>
<br>
Thank you very much. <br>
<br>
Kind regards,<br>
Horia Călugăreanu<br>
University College London</div>
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