Do we really need West and South when we can use negative North and negative East?

  • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    I was assuming a conlang situation where “north” referred more to the axis, rather than the direction.

    Anti-north-north would be more “reversed-vertical-vertical” meaning it’s reversed vertical (south), and closer to the vertical axis than the horizontal axis. North would just be “vertical” without being reversed.

    • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      I don’t know what you are even talking about (and too lazy to put it into a translator now).

      But I know that North and South are terms that must be usable for everybody. So, especially for such people who don’t know what you are even talking about.

      • 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        Essentially: it’s not designed as a change from North/East/South/West, it’s designed as a from-scratch way to refer to those directions.

        The sun rises in the East and sets in the West, so let’s say East is “Sun” and West is “Setting-Sun.”

        Polaris/The North Star is in the North, so let’s call that direction “Star” and the other direction “No-Star.”

        When you say “Setting-Sun-Sun-Star,” you’re saying the direction is more similar to the path the sun takes through the sky than it is to the North Star, and in the direction the sun sets.

        16 directions is pretty arbitrary anyway though, usually 8 is enough and then you don’t have the confusion of repeated words.