I am in my first week of Finnish classes. It's a very interesting language for a number of reasons, at least from the point of view of someone used to Indo-European languages. Anyway, if I am reading the vocabulary list properly, Finnish has not only the usual words for North, South, East and West but also what appear to be "dedicated" words (by which I mean words not derived from the words for the other directions) for NE, SE, SW and NW. There may be more than these eight for all I know.
Are there many cultures that do not have the usual four directions (either more or fewer)? I would think "sunrise-direction" and "sunset-direction" would be the two naturals with others following from them, but would appreciate any enlightenment.
Thanks.
CK
I think Catalan has eight. But the "extra" four may be used only as names of winds rather than as directions per se. There are Catalan speakers around who would know.
Are the other geographical directions in Finnish separate words, or compounds? In Swedish there is 'nordost' (north-east) and 'sydost' (south-east), but they are actually compounds of nord - öst and syd - öst, without umlaut (o - ö).
There is a bit more to it in Swedish, but I'll leave it at that.
Anyway, it'd be interesting to know the origin of the English North, South, East and West. In Polish, those words translated to English, are Midnight, Midday, Rise, Descend.
Finnish has eight directions, all individual words, not compounds. They are also used in everyday speach (although I have to admit I often have to pause and go through the whole list before finding the right word).
Good old Wikipedia has some interesting things to say on cardinal direction in different languages/cultures, including Finnish.
Here is a windrose with the eight Catalan names. Now that I look at the names I'm pretty sure they are just wind names (xaloc = scirocco). I doubt that thay're used for directions generally; i.e. I don't think you'd tell someone drive xaloc-wise on Highway 1 for 10 km etc.
And [here]http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/windrose.htm[/L] is one with the equivalent wind names in Greek, Latin, and Italian.
If anyone's interested, here's the etymology of Finnish directions:
North: pohjoinen, from 'pohja' (back, bottom), because houses used to be built their back towards the coldest direction
NE: koillinen, from 'koi' (sunrise), the direction in which the sun is first visible
East: itä, presumably from 'itää' (sporut, grow), where the sun "grows" from
SE: kaakko, from 'kaakkuri' (a bird species), the direction from which the migrating birds arrive
South: etelä, from 'esi' (front), because houses were built facing the warmest direction
SW: lounas, (orig. noon, daytime), where the sun is at midday (lounas means also lunch)
West: länsi, origin unknown, possibly from 'lansi, lannistaa' (lowland, lay down) meaning the direction in which the sun is low
NW: luode, origin unknown, possibly from 'luotaa' (go down, plunge into) meaning the direction in which the sun sinks
The directions weren't fixed until 19th century though. The meanings vary between different dialects and related languages, for example 'lounas' can mean anything between South and North West.
Indonesian/Malay has interesting words for NW, NE, SW, SE.
southeast - "tenggara", which is its own word and has no links to either south (selatan) or east (timur).
northeast - "timur laut", literally "sea east"
northwest - "barat laut", literally "sea west"
southwest - "barat daya". I've never quite understood this one - "daya" can mean power or potency, so I suppose barat daya means the powerful west?
Balinese has different principle directions: kaja (towards the mountains) and kelod (towards the sea), rather than the 4 cardinal compass points.
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<hr>Balinese has different principle directions: kaja (towards the mountains) and kelod (towards the sea), rather than the 4 cardinal compass points.<hr></blockquote>
I think that's the same in Hawaii and possibly some other polynesian islands.
Estonian has also 8 words for directions like Finnish. But there is one confusing difference. The Estonian word for South (lõuna) corresponds to Finnish word for SW (lounas) and Finnish word for South (etelä) corresponds to Estonian word for SW (edel). I once saw a geography book for children that was translated from Finnish to Estonian and these directions were mixed up.
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