Does your country have ubiquitous directional terms?

15 comments

1. In French, we have this funny alternative word for “the South”: *le midi -* etymologically “mid-day”, and used in standard French for “twelve o’clock”, and hence for “lunch time”. As it is the moment of the day where the sun is at its highest point in the South, it is also a word for “South” and is used then mostly to mean “Southern Europe” , basically all sunny regions where Northern Europeans will flock to for summer holidays. So if someone says “I am moving to *le midi”*, it is clear they mean the sunny South (from France, that is Southern France then, whereas from Belgian perspective, it can be ambiguous, for some it can also be Italy or Spain – maybe an influence from Italian and Spanish immigrants, as someone commented that Italian has a similar usage of “mezziogiorno” ?).

   There is also the phrase “*pays de l’Est*” (ie “Eastern countries”), which dates back to the cold war and refers to ex-communist countries of Europe. If we refer to Asia in terms of cardinal directions, we will rather use the word *l’Orient* rather than *l’Est*, and also for Near East/Middle East/Far East (resp. *Proche-Orient, Moyen-Orient* and *Extrême-Orient),* as opposed to *l’Occident,* ie “the West” in the geopolitical sense of Europe and USA.

   EDIT: clarification on different perspective from France and Belgium

2. In the Netherlands, people talk of “het hoge noorden” – the high north. Because it’s generally far away from the main western cities. Noone talks about the “low south” because that’s closer. There’s at least an hour’s drive through nothingness before you get to the High North, so that’s practically the other side of the planet. As someone from the High North, I have no idea what these people call stuff to our north.

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4. In Europe there’s those terms as well because we had this iron curtain thingie, remember?

5. We have “the mainland”, which is the part of Russia that has railroads. Used by those in the remote regions of Siberia and the Far East that are mostly reachable only by plane or ship.

   Oh, and “beyond the Urals” to refer to the whole Asian part of Russia.

6. In Poland, we perceive ourselves (and countries like Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, etc.) as a part of Central Europe and we feel discomfort when someone calls us “Eastern Europe”. When we say “Eastern Europe”, we mean Russia, Belarus, etc. – the countries that are to the east of the EU and NATO border.

7. I can’t say we use any of them consistently in Ireland. You’ll hear a lot of those phrases though. You might hear up north / down south to refer to two jurisdictions, but it’s not universal or anything like that.

   We also tend to talk about “The West of Ireland” as a place even though it doesn’t exist as any kind of entity. It’s a bit of a catch all term that crosses multiple provinces.

   England definitely uses “up north” and “down south” because there’s a strong sense of identity of northern vs southern England.

8. Morgenland (morning land) and Abendland (evening land).

   Morgenland is in the east and islamic, Abendland in the west and christian.

   Der hohe Norden (high north) is far up in the north, and we use central/north/south/east/west to describe parts of Germany.

9. As someone already mentioned, we prefer to call ourselves Central European since we don’t consider ourselves Eastern like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus but we’re also not Western like France or the UK.

   We also have the expression “over the border” (határon túl) which usually refers to Hungarian minorities living in neighboring countries.

   Also, people from Budapest usually call the rest of the country “countryside” (vidék), even the second biggest city.

10. In my canton of Switzerland we say “descendre” (go down) or “monter” (go up) to indicated if you go west or east in the valley respectively. It follows the path of the Rhône. So someone from Sion in the middle of Valais would say “Je suis descendu à Monthey” (I went down to Monthey) but someone from Monthey would say “Je suis monté à Sion” (I went up to Sion). It’s also obviously used when talking about a place up or down the mountain.

11. “The north” in Portugal generally refers to the above and within proximity to the Douro river. Bellow that is the center region, but I’ve heard some northerners call everything bellow them “the south”. Being from the southernmost region of the country, I do find it weird when Lisbon is called “the south”, because it feels more like the center to me.

    There’s also an expression that northerners use, “Abaixo do Douro, tudo mouro”, which translates to “Bellow the Douro, everyone/everything is Moorish”. This is usually said jokingly, though I have met some people that seem to truly believe this, and that everything/everyone bellow the north is “less Portuguese”.

12. There is a history of European countries expanding in one direction. Do you know anything about history?

    In the Iberian Peninsula, there was an expansion south called “reconquista,” where the Christian northern kigndons conquered the Islamic southern kalifad.

    Russia expanded eastward for most of its history, and the Nordic countries expanded north.

    In every country in the world people use cardinal directions to explain where you go.

13. In Cyprus, *ποτζιεί* (over there) and *ποδά* (here) are pretty commonly used to refer to the two sides of the post-war division. As they are terms in Greek, the “here” refers to the southern part that is mostly inhabited by Greek Cypriots, and the “over there” to the northern part where most Turkish Cypriots live.

    Those terms came to be during the time (1974-2003) where visiting the other side wasn’t generally possible – think of the West Berlin wall and the Inner-German border situation for an approximation of the general vibe.

    Since 2003, it has been a metaphorical literal minefield to find politically correct ways to refer to the two sides in a way that won’t offend anyone. “Here” and “there” kind of remained the least politically charged ones (they don’t make any strong claims about legitimacy and sovereignty), but they are emotionally charged (they invoke the old feeling of absolute partition).

14. In Italy we say “in culo ai lupi/alla montagna” which translates to “in wolves/mountains asses” as to say “somewhere very distant from your current location”.

15. In Polish there is this quirk that sometimes we say that we go “to” specific country (do Niemiec, do Hiszpanii), but we go “on” some countries (na Litwę, na Słowację). This might stem from the fact that we use the “on” when refering to regions that are not independent and are part of a larger entity (like we would say we go “on” Silesia, “na Śląsk”). Countries with that quirk include Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, so states that historically were a part of a larger empire (Commonwealth, Austro-Hungary, Tsardom etc). Nowadays some linguists are pushing for a change as using the “on” might be considered demeaning, although Poles are used to this form of speech and it doesnt really have any negative connotations, so I doubt it will change.