Re: CHAT: living conditions/conditionally Re:MiscellaneousNonsense

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
C'est la` pourtant que se livre le sens du dire, de ce que, s'y conjuguant
le nyania qui bruit des sexes en compagnie, il supplee a ce qu'entre eux,
de rapport nyait pas.               -- Jacques Lacan, "L'Etourdit"

On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> "SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY" wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, John Cowan wrote:
> > > There are Native American lgs (but I forget just which ones) that habitually
> > > use north/south/east/west instead of left/right/front/back to refer to
> > > directions.
> >
> > I heard they were Australian languages.  Am I wrong on this count?  Or is
> > this an urban legend of linguistics?
>
> It could easily be both.  It's a good case, like onomatopoeia, where language
> is fairly directly influenced by the outside environment.  For languages that developed
> in flat plain-like regions where reference points are few and far between, like
> the Pueblo languages of New Mexico and Arizona, there is a tendency for
> cardinal-point directional systems.  In those languages in particular, there are six
> cardinal points:  the four European ones, plus the zenith and nadir.   I've been
> told that in certain parts of the midwest, this has also become a part of their
> English:  people refer to the north or south side of a building, rather than the front
> or back.  In regions where terrain is rough and varied, like that of the Guarijio of
> Northern Mexico, there is more of a tendency for people to use relative directional
> systems.
>
> ======================================
> Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
> ======================================
>