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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Dear Ian:</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> I am wondering why you said 'except Mandarin"?</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> In modern Mandarin, north is bei3 (北）， and the back (of a person, an animal or a house) is bei4 (背）.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> They are tightly related in several ways.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> Every philologist of classic Chinese knows that they have the same etymology. In dictionary of etymology, they appear under one and the same entry.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> They have similar pronunciations, with the same syllable and different tones.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> In terms of Chinese characters, <span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">bei3 北 (north) describes a situation where two persons are sitting back to back, facing the opposite directions. And the character bei4 背 (back) consists of two parts, '北’(north) + 月 （here means the category of flesh, body）</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> Semantically, 北 bei3 (north) has a verb usage denoting 'to run back from the battlefields after being defeated', it means one runs away with his back to the enemy. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> Culturally, Chinese houses always face south, and the main seats in each room face south too. It means when you stand in front of your door or sit in a room, south is to your face and north is to your back.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> So, for every reason, back and north are etymologically related tightly in in any varieties of Chinese.<br><br> <br>Danqing</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: lucida console, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div>
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On Friday, December 25, 2020, 2:30:39 PM GMT+8, JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo@connect.polyu.hk> wrote:
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<div>Dear typologists,<br>
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I am currently working on a doctoral project focusing on the areality of Mainland Northeast Asia (Korea, Mongolia, Northeast China, but <strong>not</strong> Japan, Russian Far East, or Sout<span>hern/Western
China).</span><br>
One of the interesting possible areal features of MNEA languages (Tuvan, Manchu, Korean, Mandarin, and Mongolian) that I’ve found is that these five languages, except Mandarin, can express “North” with the word meaning “rear; back; behind”. Please see the map:<br>
<img src="cid:YP4uUvydtFQ6xu2fM1af" style="max-width: 647px;"><br>
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(Note that, in Mandarin, <em>bei</em> 北 `North’ and <em>bei </em>背 `back; backside’ differ only in tone, and are etymologically related)<br>
I’m curious if this polysemy exists in other areas as well, and if so, what would be the motivation? (Historical? Cultural? Religious? Cognitive? Climatic?)</div>
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Regards,
<div>Ian</div>
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