Linguistics

This language has no words for 'left' or 'right' — only compass directions

Speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre, in the Australian community of Pormpuraaw, don't say a cup is on your left — they say it's to your northeast. Because everyday speech forces constant orientation to true compass points, speakers maintain an accurate sense of direction most people never develop, and even arrange time itself running east to west rather than left to right.

Lera Boroditsky, Alice Gaby, Remembrances of Times East: Absolute Spatial Representations of Time in an Australian Aboriginal Community — Psychological Science, 2010

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