North of My Foot: Languages Without ‘Left’ and ‘Right’
Imagine a world without 'left' or 'right,' where you'd say "there's a bug on your south leg." This post explores languages that rely on absolute directions like north, south, and…
Tag: ethnolinguistics
Counting in Base-20: A World Beyond Ten
Why do we count in tens? While it seems natural, many cultures from the Mayans to the Basques developed sophisticated base-20 systems, likely inspired by counting on both fingers and…
Language Stories: Darwin and the Birth of Ethnolinguistics
The narrative of Charles Darwin’s voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, while famous for its contributions to evolutionary biology, is seldom explored from the viewpoint of...