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

[LIU Danqing]

 Dear Ian:
  I am wondering why you said 'except Mandarin"?
  In modern Mandarin, north is bei3 (北）， and the back (of a person, an animal or a house) is bei4 (背）.

  They are tightly related in several ways.
  Every philologist of classic Chinese knows that they have the same etymology. In dictionary of etymology, they appear under one and the same entry.
  They have similar pronunciations, with the same syllable and different tones.
   In terms of Chinese characters, 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）
  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.  
  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.
  So, for every reason, back and north are etymologically related tightly in in any varieties of Chinese.

  
Danqing

    On Friday, December 25, 2020, 2:30:39 PM GMT+8, JOO, Ian [Student] <ian.joo at connect.polyu.hk> 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

Disclaimer:



This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and notify the sender and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (the University) immediately. Any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

The University specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through University E-mail Facilities. Any views and opinions expressed are only those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the University and the University accepts no liability whatsoever for any losses or damages incurred or caused to any party as a result of the use of such information.
_______________________________________________
Lingtyp mailing list
Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20201225/181e5988/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Attachment.tiff
Type: image/tiff
Size: 1273002 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20201225/181e5988/attachment.tiff>