Re: Weird little color system

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 15:40:47 -0400, Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:

> Paul wrote: "I think the point was that in the languages everyone is
> familiar with, if one is derived from the other, it'll be "left" derived
> from "right", rather than dublex-wise."
>
> Why w    ould it be more likely one way or the other?
I have no idea of the logical explanation, but in my limited experience,
that's the case, or at least it feels like the case.

There are theories that will tell you there's a universal taboo about the
left hand compared to the right hand, which is said to explain why it's
borrowed from other languages, or derived, or suppleted, or what not (much
like words for "bear", "wolf", and various sexual and excretory things). I
can't find a logical explanation to underlie the taboo, though, but by
some accounts it must have been quite deeply ingrained.





Paul