Comment on is there any language that doesn't have four basic directions?

• clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Depending on your facing, presumably “the East side of my ribs hurt”.

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  • EvilBit@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Pretty much this, if I remember correctly. Because of this linguistic feature, they have an exceptionally well-developed sense of absolute direction and basically know at all times which way is which.

    Bob fell out of the boat. Which side? The south side. Turn the boat 90° clockwise. He’s still off the south side of the boat.

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• bluGill@fedia.io ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I don't know that culture, but in general those are questions they learn not to say. Perhaps they point to a place "there" and that is enough.

  When translating from a gendered language to English (which doesn't grammatically require a gender for everything) I often has to guess was gender important or not - sometimes this is not obvious.

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