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

[Jonathon Lum]

Dear Ian (and all),

A highly relevant paper on this topic (though not specifically on Northeast
Asia) is:

*Brown, Cecil H. (1983). 'Where do cardinal direction terms come from?'.
Anthropological Linguistics. Vol. 25 (2). Pp. 121-161.*

It appears that where cardinal direction terms are related to terms for
'front', 'behind', 'left' or 'right' at all, the most common situation
involves an eastward orientation, i.e. 'east' corresponds with 'front', or
'west' with 'behind', or 'north' with 'left', or 'south' with 'right', or
more than one of these correspondences. This is the kind of system
described by various others in the thread, and appears to relate to the
salience and cultural significance of the rising sun. However, other
canonical postures are possible, including the one you describe for
Mainland Northeast Asia, but also others (e.g. Hawaiian apparently has a
right/north and left/south association). It would be interesting to know
whether the relationship between 'back' and 'north' is mainly restricted to
languages spoken in the far north of the globe.

Best,
Jonathon

On Sat, 26 Dec 2020 at 11:55, Siva Kalyan <sivakalyan.princeton at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>
>
> *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 listLingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.orghttp://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
> --
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/20201226/6fbc54e4/attachment.htm>