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Delexicalization of left & right

From:John Vertical <johnvertical@...>
Date:Monday, July 31, 2006, 12:54
Hello List,
So I'm planning that one of my languages shall be devoid of the concepts of
"left" and "right". 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. The culture in question is supposed to be approx.
neolithical: agriculture is not out of the question, nor towns, but
centralized religion/society/economy is. (It does exist elsewhere, however.)
I'm thinking of placing them in either northern India or pre-desertation
Sahara in a conhistory that diverges from ours a good deal before present
(possibly allowing multiple hominid species). Also, any ANADEW chances?

I have the following nouns split:
* Hands
* Feet
* Eyes
* Forks of road
* Sides of building (wrt. the entrance)
* Sides of river (technically, it's wrt. the direction of flow, not the
direction you're facing)
* possibly draft-animals-out-of-a-pair
Legs, ears etc. will be derived from the other body parts, in a "ear of the
Right Eye" fashion.

Verbs:
* to turn
* to aim (with bow/spear/etc)

More specific cultural concepts (eg. "sides of altar") to come if/when I get
around designing them in the first place.

John Vertical

Replies

Ash Wells <ash_perhaps@...>
Arnt Richard Johansen <arj@...>