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

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[–] 5 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Huh, how do you say something is on the "left side" of an object then? Like "the left side of my ribs hurt"

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  • [–] 11 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Depending on your facing, presumably "the East side of my ribs hurt".

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago

    Pretty much this, if I remember correctly. Because of this linguistic feature, they have an exceptionally well-developed sense of absolute direction and basically know at all times which way is which.

    Bob fell out of the boat. Which side? The south side. Turn the boat 90° clockwise. He’s still off the south side of the boat.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    I don't know that culture, but in general those are questions they learn not to say. Perhaps they point to a place "there" and that is enough.

    When translating from a gendered language to English (which doesn't grammatically require a gender for everything) I often has to guess was gender important or not - sometimes this is not obvious.

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