Re: CHAT: living conditions/conditionally Re: MiscellaneousNonsense

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

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> > OC, you're safer pointing me in the right direction anyway, since I can
> > barely tell right from left.  <wry g>
> >
> > Speaking of which, are there any languages that *don't* use right/left,
> > or use them differently, or...?  I've always wondered about that.
>
> Yes, actually.  There are some Plains Indian languages in North America
> which have absolute reference points, based on the cardinal directions,
> rather than relative ones.  It's pretty easy to understand in what kind of
> environment one or the other is preferred.
<wry g>  I can imagine.  Too bad English doesn't do that...OTOH, I've
never been real good at reading the sun's position when it's high up, either.

YHL