Re: Delexicalization of left & right

Armt Richard Johansen wrote:

> On Mon, 31 Jul 2006, John Vertical wrote:
>
> > Hello List,
> > So I'm planning that one of my languages shall be devoid of the concepts
> > of
> > "left" and "right".
>
> Nice!
>
> > I've thought up a few lexical items which need to be
> > split into right and left variants, but I'd like to ask if you can think
> > of
> > further suggestions.
>
> First, a question: how about cardinal directions? (North, south, east,
> west.) Surely, these concepts must be important to hunter-gatherer
> societies.
Some languages use derivs. of "toward the mountains/toward the sea", up/down
etc. but of course that depends on the local geography and one's orientation
in it...
>
> could of course go with left/right version of every body part that comes
> in pairs, but it gets kinda implausible for the language to have that kind
> of fine-grainedness, yet still have no words for left and right.
I think so too.
>
> Other suggestions:
>
> - port/starboard
> - clockwise/counterclockwise
> - right-handed/left-handed helicity
IIRC from what John V. said about his people, they may not have that level
of technological thought....?
>
> Also, the lexical items for Right Eye and Left Eye might over time undergo
> semantic drift, so that they end up actually meaning right and left. This
> would especially be the case if they can be combined with the words for
> specific body parts that come in left-right pairs.
I agree. Since humans are constructed with bilateral symmetry, it's always
struck me as unlikely that the left/right opposition wouldn't develop.
Question: if Martians were spherical, with multiple arms, how would we
explain left/right to them? :-))

Some idle thoughts: is Latin dexter possibly related to the IE root ?*deik
'to point'?  The Romance langs. adapted directus 'straight' for 'right', <
IE *reg 'rule', no?

Whether the cultural concept _right: good vs. left: bad, taboo_ is really
ancient is an interesting question.

Some Austronesian langs. use *-bali for 'left'-- probably homonymous with
several similar *forms meaning 'side; answer; return; companion' as well as
'clumsy, awkward' and 'enemy' !!