‘They eat with their hands.’
This map shows the distribution of the two primary ways in which languages lexically recognize major segments of the human upper limb. The major segments are 'hand,' from the fingertips to the wrist, and 'arm,' from the fingertips or from the wrist to the shoulder. Two values are represented: English is an example of a differentiating (type 2) language, with hand and arm . Another example is Ngawun (Pama-Nyungan; Queensland, Australia), with marl 'hand' and palkal'arm.' If there is no 'arm' term in a language, but one or more words denote respectively one or more major segments of 'arm' other than 'hand' such as the forearm and the upper arm, the language is also included in type 2. An example is Chai (Nilo-Saharan; Ethiopia), having a word for 'hand,' síyó , and a word for both 'forearm', múní , and 'upper arm', yíró , while lacking a term for 'arm.' Differentiating languages such as Chai that lack a word for 'arm' are rare among languages sampled for the map. Examples of identity (type 1) come from Lonwolwol(Oceanic; Vanuatu), Czech, and Gurma (Gur, Niger-Congo; Burkina Faso), respectively showing the terms va:, ruka, andnu, all of which denote both 'hand' and 'arm.' Some languages included on the map are type 1 but nonetheless also have a term for 'hand' and/or one for 'arm' that does not show 'hand/arm' polysemy. For example,Bambara (Mande; Mali) uses bolo for both 'hand' and 'arm,' but has an alternate term, tègè, used for 'hand' (and also denoting 'palm' and 'foot'). Semai (Mon-Khmer; MalayPeninsula) shows tek , which polysemously denotes both 'hand' and 'arm', and also kengrit, which designates only 'arm.' Jicarilla Apache (Athabaskan; New Mexico) denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' with gan but also designates the former withl-lá and the latter with ganí . The convention followed here is that if a language shows the same term for both 'hand' and 'arm,' type 1 (identity) is judged present, even if there are other terms in its lexicon denoting just 'hand' or 'arm.' In some languages, a word denoting 'hand' also extends polysemously to a larger upper limb segment other than ‘arm’ that includes 'hand' as a part. For example, theIndonesian word for 'hand,' tangan , also denotes the forearm (with lengan referring to 'arm'). Indonesian is judged to be a differentiating language. In Kadazan (Austronesian; Borneo),hongon denotes both 'hand' and 'forearm', but since it also refers to 'arm,' the language is judged to be type 1. In the language sample used for this map, type 2 (differentiating) languages are about one and a half times more common than type 1 languages. There is a geographical distributional pattern: the percentage of type 1 languages occurring at latitudes closer to the equator is considerably greater than the percentage of type 1 languages found at latitudes more distant from the equator. In addition, among both type 1 and type 2 languages considerably removed from the equator (north of 35°59’N and south of 9°59’S), the percentage of type 2 languages is substantially greater than the percentage of type 1 languages. In other words, type 1 languages tend to occur more frequently nearer the equator and less frequently away from the equator. The statistical association between latitudinal location and values is strongly positive (gamma = .61, p < .001, see Table 1).
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