All languages I know of have four basic directions: left, right, backwards and forwards. Are there any that don’t?

Maybe you could have just three: forwards, backwards-left and backwards-rigth? Or more then four, maybe with distinct names for some or all of the four in-between the common ones

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 days ago

    I cannot find it anymore, but remember recently reading a blog post about a language where their concept of directions was “toward the river”, “away from the river (or: into the jungle)”, “down the river”, “up the river”, and they expressed only those directions. So when a western researcher asked them how they called “left” and “right”, they gave different answers every time, or something like that…

    • spongebue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      2 days ago

      There was a Lateral with Tom Scott episode about a small island that didn’t use north, south, east, or west. Instead it was towards the ocean, inland, clockwise, and counter-clockwise