3 ms·

The remark is that the two words, while apparently interchangeable, in actual use are not. One is often used with positive meaning related to dexterity and so o

The remark is that the two words, while apparently interchangeable, in actual use are not. One is often used with positive meaning related to dexterity and so on. Also, they have different political meanings. So they are not at all symmetric in actual use, much like every other word pair

OscarCunningham 9y ago
Not all of those differences are cross-cultural.
- pathsjs 9y ago
  This is a good point. Still, for instance, the binomial left/right to indicate political position is common across many languages
- schoen 9y ago
  They definitely work in a lot of languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derecho#Spanish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derecho#Spanish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/direito https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/direito https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diritto https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diritto https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinister#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinister#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dexter#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dexter#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laevus#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laevus#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%82#Ancient_Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%8... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/recht#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/recht#German and many languages related to these. Some Slavic languages have a close cognate between words meaning 'right (direction)' and words meaning 'right (correct)', although I didn't immediately find examples in current use on Wiktionary where the two forms are identical. A "dated" example is Polish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prawy#Polish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prawy#Polish Edit: a Finnish friend pointed out that this works in Finnish, which is European but not related to any of the other languages above. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oikea#Finnish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oikea#Finnish I don't know if these linguistic phenomena definitely occur in non-European languages, but I think that many people in the Middle East, many parts of Africa, and South Asia consider the left hand unlucky or impure not only because it's weaker in most people but also because it's conventionally used when going to the toilet. It would be a little surprising to me if that attitude didn't show up in languages from those places too. Edit: it looks like it works in Arabic too https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84#Arab... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%B1#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%B1#Arab... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86#Arab...

OscarCunningham 9y ago

Not all of those differences are cross-cultural.

pathsjs 9y ago
This is a good point. Still, for instance, the binomial left/right to indicate political position is common across many languages
schoen 9y ago
They definitely work in a lot of languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derecho#Spanish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derecho#Spanish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/direito https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/direito https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diritto https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diritto https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinister#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinister#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dexter#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dexter#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laevus#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laevus#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%82#Ancient_Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8C%CF%8... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/recht#German https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/recht#German and many languages related to these. Some Slavic languages have a close cognate between words meaning 'right (direction)' and words meaning 'right (correct)', although I didn't immediately find examples in current use on Wiktionary where the two forms are identical. A "dated" example is Polish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prawy#Polish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prawy#Polish Edit: a Finnish friend pointed out that this works in Finnish, which is European but not related to any of the other languages above. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oikea#Finnish https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oikea#Finnish I don't know if these linguistic phenomena definitely occur in non-European languages, but I think that many people in the Middle East, many parts of Africa, and South Asia consider the left hand unlucky or impure not only because it's weaker in most people but also because it's conventionally used when going to the toilet. It would be a little surprising to me if that attitude didn't show up in languages from those places too. Edit: it looks like it works in Arabic too https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84#Arab... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%B1#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%B1#Arab... https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86#Arabic https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%85%D9%86#Arab...