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)
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)
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)
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.”
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Joshua 4:19:
Kupsabiny: “It was the tenth day of the first month when the people crossed the river Jordan. They went to live/stay where it is called Gilgal on the eastern side of Jericho.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “The Israelites, having come from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, camped in Gilgal, which is situated east of Jericho.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “The crossing of the Israelinhon over the River of Jordan happened on the tenth day of the first month. Then the Israelinhon camped at Gilgal, on the east side of Jerico.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “It was on the tenth day of the first month of that year that the people crossed over the Jordan River and camped at a place called Gilgal, on the east side of the land near Jericho city.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
The Hebrew, Greek and Ge’ez that is translated as “Jordan” means “descending (rapidly),” “flowing down.” (Source: Cornwall / Smith 1997 )
In Hungarian Sign Language it is translated with the sign for the river bordering Jordan and Israel, along with the general sign for river. (Source: Jenjelvi Biblia and HSL Bible Translation Group)
“Jordan river” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )
Crossed is literally “came up out of” (Revised Standard Version). Many languages will have specialized terms for “crossing a river” or for “coming up out of a valley onto level land.” One must avoid a term which would suggest the crossing of the river in a boat or by some other water vehicle. For that reason the word generally used for “crossing” may not be satisfactory, and one may do better to select a term which means “cross a valley by foot.”
The day the people crossed into Canaan is given as the tenth day of the first month, that is, of Abib (later called Nisan). This month began with the first new moon occurring after the modern March 11, so the crossing occurred between March 21 and April 18, in modern terms. (Passover falls on 14 Nisan; see Exo 12.18.) Problems related to the months of the year are sometimes highly complex, and it may be useful to provide a cultural note, indicating that the reference is to the first month of the Jewish calendar year and to define it in terms of the international (or local) calendar year.
Gilgal is usually located about 4 kilometers east (really northeast) of Jericho (Revised Standard Version “on the east border of Jericho”). It may be useful to mark Gilgal as a “town”; if so, one would then translate “camped near the town of Gilgal.”
The Hebrew phrase translated “the east border” by Revised Standard Version probably indicates the eastern edge of the territory controlled by Jericho. Jericho was a walled city, and the text does not mean that the Israelites were camped right outside the city walls.
There at Gilgal Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan (see 4.8). As at 4.8, so here also it is necessary to clarify that Joshua himself was not the one who set up the twelve stones. Moreover, the indefinite passive taken from may be a problem. One may then need to translate “There Joshua caused (or, commanded) the men to set up the twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
On the tenth day of the first month: The first month refers to the month of the Hebrew calendar that was called Abib, and later called Nisan. This month began with the first new moon occurring after March 11. So, the people crossed the Jordan River between March 21 and April 18.
the people went up from the Jordan: The Israelites walked out of the Jordan River and up onto the western bank.
4:19b
and camped: The word camped means that they set up a temporary camp or dwelling place. If there is no appropriate word in your language for “camp” you can translate it:
they set up temporary homes
at Gilgal:Gilgal is the name of a place between Jericho and the Jordan River. At the time when the Israelites camped there, Gilgal was not yet a town. It was given the name Gilgal at the time of their encampment and probably later it became a town. The exact location of Gilgal is not known.
on the eastern border of Jericho:Jericho was a town with a large wall around it for protection against enemies.
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