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

[Paolo Driussi]

Dear Joo

as far as I know, in Chinese culture, developed on the continent,South i the fundamental cardinal point, because you face the sun when considering the space around you. In our culture, on the other hand, that developed with fabulous sea travels, reference is made to the Polar Star, that helped sailors in their nocturnal routes. In representations this leads to have opposite references.


Paolo Driussi

Università degli Studi di Udine
DIUM
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e del Patrimonio Culturale

paolo.driussi at uniud.it<mailto:paolo.driussi at uniud.it>

Il giorno 25 dic 2020, alle ore 07:29, JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk<mailto:ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk>> ha scritto:

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:
<Attachment.tiff>

(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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