cardinal directions

According to Anne Garber Kompaoré (in Le Sycomore 3/2009, p. 34ff. ), there are 4 ways to identify cardinal directions:

1. celestial bodies, especially the sun and certain stars
2. geographical landmarks, for example a mountain, sea, or river (depending on its position or the direction in which the water flows) etc.
3. climatic phenomena, such as the wind and the direction from which rain comes
4. bodily reference points, especially front, back, left, and right, in relation to celestial bodies or geographical landmarks

Following are examples of how these are practically implemented by various languages: (click or tap here to see the rest of this insight)

Celestial Bodies

East and west are often translated by the rising and the setting of the sun (note that the origin of English and other Indo-European languages is “dawn” for “east” and “evening” [i.e. sun-down] for “west”):

  • Maan: “where the sun comes up” and “where the sun goes down” (source: Don Slager)
  • Kankanaey: “from the coming-out of the sun “and “going-away of the sun” (source: Kankanaey back-translation)
  • Northern Emberá: “from where the sun comes up” and “from where the sun falls” (source: Charles Mortensen)
  • Ejamat “the side where the sun comes from” and “the side where it sets” (source: David Frank in this blog post )
  • Tzeltal: “where the sun pours-out” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Mono (DRC): “of-hole-sun” (west)
  • Belanda Bor: “place morning” and “place evening”
  • Shambala: “side sink sun” (south)
  • Northern Ngbandi: “the sun behind the chief’s house” (east — the chief lives traditionally at the eastern side of the village, therefore he does not get the sunlight into his eyes) and “under the sun” (west)
  • Northwestern Dinka: “earth behind” (east — the place behind the earth, i.e. the area where the sun rises)
  • Bari: “Morning Star” / “Venus” (east)
  • Chopi: “sky” (north) (source for this and six above: Angelika Mietzner and Helma Pasch in Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 4, 3/2007 )

Geographical Landmarks

  • Kele: “down-river” (west) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Jula: “salt village” (north — because salt comes from the north, from the Sahara Desert) and “kola village” (south — since kola comes from the coastal region to the south) (source: Garber Kompaoré)
  • Matumbi: “toward the beach” (East) (the coast is in the eastern direction in Matumbi-speaking areas), “north” and “south” can be defined as above or below another place (Source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific notes in Paratext)
  • Lamba: “to the Aushi country” (north) / kumausi and “to the Lenje country” (south) / kumalenje (source C. M. Doke in The Bible Translator 1958, p. 57ff. )
  • Acoli: “right” (of the local White Nile) (north) and “left” (of the White Nile) (south)
  • Zande: “interior (dry) land” (east); “place-inside-country” (north / south) — Zande, like a number of other languages, including Matengo and Hehe, traditionally only has three cardinal directions.
  • Belanda Bor: “lower place” (north) and “higher place” (south)
  • Turkana: “(up)stream” (north) and (down)stream (south)
  • Mono (DRC): “water place” (south) (source for this and five above: Mietzner / Pasch)

Climatic Phenomena

  • Shilluk: “opening westwind” (north) and “opening eastwind” (south)
  • Swahili used to have six directions. In reducing them to four, kusini and kaskazini which used to refer to south-west and north east respectively (the directions from where the two monsoons blow) have become the terms for “south” and north.” (source for this and one above: Mietzner / Pasch)

Bodily Reference Points

  • Nuer / Burun: “face” and “sun face” respectively (both: east)
  • Kalenjin: “eye sun” (east) (this and the one above indicate that the sun is “facing” the spectator from its position in the east:
  • Shilluk: doesn’t use a fixed position of the speaker, instead it has “eye sun morning” for east and “eye sun evening” for west
  • Mono (DRC): “foot-sun” (east — the start of the sun’s journey)
  • Burun: “sun leg” (west — the end of the sun’s journey)
  • Bari: “back” (north — when people are facing south, north is at their back) (source for this and above: Mietzner / Pasch)
  • Northern Emberá “the looking [left] hand” (north) and “the real [right] hand” (south) (source: Charles Mortensen)
  • Morelos Nahuatl: “from above” (north) and “from below” (south) (source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)

When all four directions are mentioned, translators tend to avoid listing the four, sometimes verbose terms, and chose solutions like “all directions” (such as in Maan or Manya (source: Don Slager). Yakan has “from the four corners of the earth” (source: Yakan back-translation) and Western Bukidnon Manobo “from the four directions here on the earth” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo back-translation).

The Hebrew text that gives instructions where to place items in the tabernacle with the help of cardinal directions (north and south) had to be approached in the Bambam translation specific to spacial concepts of that culture. Phil Campbell explains: “There are no words in Bambam for north and south. In Exodus 26:35, God instructs that the table is to be placed on the north side and the lamp on the south side inside the tabernacle. The team wants to use right and left to tell where the lamp and table are located. In many languages we would say that the table is on the right and the lampstand is on the left based on the view of someone entering the tabernacle. However, that is not how Bambam people view it. They view the placement of things and rooms in a building according to the orientation of someone standing inside the building facing the front of the building. So that means the table is on the left side and the lampstand is on the right side.”

See also people of the East and three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east.

complete verse (Ezekiel 40:44)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezekiel 40:44:

  • Kupsabiny: “There were two rooms in the inner courtyard. One was near the North gate looking to the South and the other was near the South gate looking to the North.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “There were two rooms in the inner courtyard. The one beside the way in the north and faced the south, and the one beside the way in the south and faced the north.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Outside the inner entryway, inside the inner courtyard, were two rooms, one on the north side and one on the south side.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Ezekiel 40:44

Then he brought me from without into the inner court: Next Ezekiel’s guide led him through the inner north gatehouse into the inner courtyard. For he brought me, see verse 17; for the inner court, see verse 19. The words he brought me are not in the Hebrew text, but the Septuagint has them. In Hebrew this clause reads literally “And from the outside of [or, to] the inner gate” (compare New King James Version “Outside the inner gate”). New International Version begins this verse with “Outside the inner gate, within the inner court,” which makes it clear that it refers to a position inside the inner courtyard. Ezekiel came through the inner north gatehouse and was standing just inside the inner courtyard. Like Revised Standard Version, translators may include a verb to reflect this motion if the narrative flows better with it or is awkward without it. Models that include it for this clause are “Then he brought me into the inner courtyard, just outside the north gate” or “When I came into the inner courtyard and was standing just outside the north gate.”

And behold, there were two chambers in the inner court: Revised Standard Version continues to follow the Septuagint here. What Ezekiel saw in the inner courtyard here is not certain, since the Hebrew says literally “[there were] chambers for singers in the inner courtyard” (similarly New Revised Standard Version, New Living Translation [1996], King James Version / New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). A reference to the Temple singers here is totally out of context. Therefore Revised Standard Version and most other translations follow the Septuagint by referring to two chambers (so Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New International Reader’s Version, New Century Version, English Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Christian Community Bible, Moffatt, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This reading involves small changes to the Hebrew text, and even though Hebrew Old Testament Text Project recommends against it, we believe that it is the best way of making sense of a difficult passage. Therefore we recommend that translators follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation here. What Ezekiel saw were two chambers in the inner court, that is, two rooms facing the inner courtyard. Good News Translation says “two rooms opening on the inner court.”

One at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south gate facing north: One of the rooms was facing south beside the north gatehouse, and the other room was facing north beside the south gatehouse. So these rooms were opposite each other across the inner courtyard.

The Hebrew gives no hint at all about which side of the gates these rooms were, so they may have been on the other side of the gatehouses. But most diagrams of the new Temple place them in this position. This is probably correct because it is likely that these rooms for the priests would be between the gates and the Temple itself, especially if the priests’ role was to protect the altar and the Temple (see the comments on verses 45-46).

The reading in Revised Standard Version for this last half of the verse reflects the Septuagint and is followed by most modern translations. However, it involves a significant change to the Hebrew, which places the second room next to the east gate (so New Revised Standard Version, King James Version, Complete Jewish Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) instead of the south gate.

Although this plan for the two priests’ rooms in the Hebrew text is not as balanced and symmetrical as that of the Septuagint, there is no reason why it is not correct. In fact, because it follows the Hebrew more closely, it may be preferable. Translators should keep that in mind when they choose which reading to follow in their language.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .