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

[Siva Kalyan]

Sanskrit likewise has dakṣiṇa (> "Deccan [plateau]"), which means both "right" and "south". And I just learned that teṉ in Tamil has the same polysemy. The terms for "north" do not mean "left" in either of these languages, though.

Siva

> On 25 Dec 2020, at 9:18 pm, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de> wrote:
> 
> 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
>  
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> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
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>  
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