in: Orienteering; General;
| # Posted 2009-07-04 15:47:26 | |
| ndobbs: | From http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/borod...
"Follow me to Pormpuraaw, a small Aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia. I came here because of the way the locals, the Kuuk Thaayorre, talk about space. Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms ? north, south, east, and west ? to define space.1 This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." One obvious consequence of speaking such a language is that you have to stay oriented at all times, or else you cannot speak properly. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." If you don't know which way you're facing, you can't even get past "Hello."" |
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| # Posted 2009-07-04 17:07:58 | |
| Oxoman: | What you need to remember is that the communication is oral. There are enhanced memory skills involved. Notches in a message stick do not constitute a map. There is, or at least was, no written language as such.
Quantities are also relatively non-specific by white feller standard. e.g. "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." |
| # Posted 2009-07-04 18:16:19 | |
| EricW: | I don't know how ndobbs stumbled on this story, but I was told by a friend at work, that on this past Wednesday July 1, this story aired on NPR, perhaps on the program "Here and Now". I was vaguely intending to post about this, but Neil beat me to it and reported it much better than I would have.
Thanks. |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 04:32:24 | |
| ebuckley: | I'm not sure who ever said Aussies can't orienteer, but it sure wouldn't have been anybody with a clue. |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 13:14:02 | |
| blairtrewin: | Sounds like I should have been asking a few more questions of the locals during my sojourn in Kalumburu (which, incidentally, has some of the most intensely detailed terrain I've seen anywhere - so intense that I'm not sure it would be mappable). |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 14:06:51 | |
| TheInvisibleLog: | I'm sure it would be mappable. It just depends on the scale. |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 14:19:46 | |
| jotaigna: | and the budget. |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 14:37:04 | |
| southerncross: | You may listen to the radio story posted here on the AustBroadCorps web site at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2009...
The pod cast and transcript are still avaIlable. I have copied a quote below it was an interesting show. "Nicholas Evans: Yes. If we were conducting this interview in Kayardild and you just told me, 'Move the mic a little closer,' or something, a Kayardild instruction would have translated as something like, 'Move the mic slightly to the south,' even if it was half an inch. And even though we're sitting in a studio that's dark, we can't see the sun, a Kayardild speaker would know exactly what the layout was because you can't say anything without specifying where people are." I think that there was also a broadcast regarding perambulations here http://www.abc.net.au/rn/poetica/stories/2009/2519... |
| # Posted 2009-07-05 16:34:19 | |
| TheInvisibleLog: | Sounds like the post race discussion at a typical local event. |
| # Posted 2009-07-07 18:30:20 | |
| jjcote: | Though I'll take a wild guess that very few orienteers in Australia (likely none at all) are related to these Kuuk Thaayorre people, just as very few US orienteers are of native stock (particularly of any given tribe). The orienteers of Oz appear to have obtained their skills without this linguistic advantage. |
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