Okay, I think we’re all full grown, normal adults here on the SDMB. Do you say “left HAND turn” when talking to another full grown, normal adult? Why? Or why not?
If only.
I’m just saying - languages where “Right (3 o’clock)” and “Right (correct)” are different words don’t have this problem.
I only know a smattering of languages other than English. So, for instance, would someone who speaks Spanish say “izquierda mano giro”. Left HAND turn. Or just “izquierda giro”?
I know you wouldn’t say it in Hebrew. But that’s because the word for the direction (yemin) is different from the word for correct (nachon).
At some point in my childhood, I read that it was a Civil War marching song with the lyrics:
March old soldier, march
Hay foot, straw foot
Belly full of bean soup
March old soldier, march
My memory of having read that is very faint, so I’m not saying it’s true. I had a quick look online and saw some references, but nothing conclusive or even convincing.
Well…
I think so, and left vs. right from left as in ‘remaining’
But also, English is not a programming language with syntax that is absolute and free of redundancy and baggage
Just highlighting an example of the kind of redundancy of language that is quite similar in construction to ‘left hand turn’, but apparently OK.
I mean, it’s not always redundancy. ‘full grown adults’ has obvious emphasis value, but then, so does ‘right hand turn’ - it’s immediately emphatically clear
Excellent point.
This could be stressful for people with a fear of water. Much safer to use levo-handed and dextro-handed.
Dexter and sinister?
And it adds the additional dimensions of above and below.
Too medieval.
It’s not an English peculiarity. The reason why Romance languages indicate directions in the feminine gender (a la derecha, à droite) is because they indicate the left or right hand, which is a feminine noun in these languages (la mano, la main). This word “hand” then got elided in the sentence, but it still dictates the gender of the adjective.
adroit and gauche
So skilful and awkward? One can never win.
Anyway, there are always the right hand and left hand rules for things involving rotations or curl.
Other than that, it is slightly irritating.
That wouldn’t work. Starboard and port apply to a specific object and you need to define the object. When facing the rear of a boat, the port side is no longer on your left. Left and right are useful because they are generally understood as being relative to the person unless otherwise specified.
My simple way of remembering port from starboard and red from green (the colours of the navigation lights) is that red, port, and left all have fewer letters than their counterpart. It is so ingrained into me now that I don’t need that memory aide anymore but it was useful once upon a time.
My mother is a very intelligent person who needs to hold her hand out to see which one makes an L shape before she can tell which way is left or right. I don’t understand the mental block either, but it’s there and it is common.
As for “left hand” vs just “left”, it is a phrase most of us have grown up with. Why change it? What’s wrong with it? I think “airplane” sounds childish, but I’m not about to suggest all you Americans change it.
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For me it was ‘There’s a little port left in my glass’ - and port(wine) is red in colour.
Since this is oral - read by a cop?
Left is vague too - “left behind”? “left on the bus”?
Sometimes an extra word avoids confusion with homophones and words that can have many meanings.
I always use Coom Bye for right and Way T’Me for left. Very straightforward. All the sheepdog handlers know what I’m talking about.