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

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear Ian, dear all,

in the Finnic languages, ‘north’ (Modern Standard Finnish pohjoinen etc.) is etymologically connected with ‘bottom’ (Finnish pohja etc.), while ‘south’ is ‘front’ (Finnish etelä ‘south’, Estonian edel ‘southwest’ etc. from ete- ‘front’). This is usually explained with the fact that the houses or huts normally had their doors towards the south, to get as much light and warmth as possible. And then you can go on speculating with whether and how the prehistoric people of the North, living in teepee-like huts, saw the world as a giant dwelling, with the sky as its ceiling.

Best
Johanna

> JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk> kirjoitti 25.12.2020 kello 7.29:
> 
> 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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--
Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
A-1090 Wien
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at • http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
Project ELDIA: http://www.eldia-project.org/ 







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