[Lingtyp] “Rear=North” in Mainland Northeast Asia

[David Gil]

Dear Ian (and all),

In the Middle East, forward/backwards maps on to the cardinal points at 
a 90º rotation to what you describe for NE Asia.  In (poetic) Hebrew, E 
is 'forward', while in Arabic, N is 'left', while 'Yemen' is, 
etymologically, 'right' — in all three cases, you're facing east.

One might speculate that both systems are sun-oriented, the 
Middle-Eastern system towards the highly-valued rising sun, and the NE 
Asian system towards the location of the sun at midday.

David


On 25/12/2020 08:29, JOO, Ian [Student] wrote:
> Dear typologists,
>
> I am currently working on a doctoral project focusing on the areality 
> of Mainland Northeast Asia (Korea, Mongolia, Northeast China, but 
> *not* Japan, Russian Far East, or Southern/Western China).
> 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:
>
>
> (Note that, in Mandarin, /bei/ 北 `North’ and /bei /背 `back; backside’ 
> differ only in tone, and are etymologically related)
> 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?)
>
> Regards,
> Ian
>
>
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-- 
David Gil
  
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
  
Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-556825895
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091

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