[Lingtyp] Languages with connotations for 'left' and 'right'

[Horia Calugareanu]

 Dear colleagues,

I am putting together a semantic typology in order to test the following
hypothesis:

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.

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.

Do you know of any other (preferably non-Indo-European) languages which
help confirm or infirm the generalisation?

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.

Thank you very much.

Kind regards,
Horia Călugăreanu
University College London
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