Detail #177: A Highly Restricted Pair of Cases

Let's consider a language that lacks words for "left" and "right", but has a pair of case-like affixes that signify 'left' and 'right'. So

me-left : on my left, to my left, my left.

My left hand would be "me-left hand", not "hand-left", since "hand-left" signifies left of the hand, not the left hand.

This makes it possible to specify immediately left in terms of a thing. Of course, in this culture, you'd assume things also often have an orientation, that helps determining which part of it is its left, and which its right. Ships and wagons are oriented along their usual direction of movement, but houses are oriented depending on if you're outside or inside of the house while talking about it: when inside, it's as oriented while exiting the sleeping room in which the speaker sleeps, when outside, it's as per the orientation of someone entering through the main door.

Of course, not everything has two sides, and not everything has a reasonable orientation by which to deem its left and right, and thus most nouns just don't have this case.