Guugu Yimithirr—an unusual Australian language Guugu Yimithirr is an indigenous Australian language, spoken in northern Queensland; the majority of speakers live in the town of Hopevale.

Guugu Yimithirr—an unusual Australian language Guugu Yimithirr is an indigenous Australian language, spoken in northern Queensland; the majority of speakers live in the town of Hopevale. The English word ‘kangaroo’ originates from Guugu Yimithirr, but the language is perhaps more notable for entirely lacking ‘egocentric’ directions. This means that there are no words for ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘backwards’ or ‘forwards’, and speakers of Guugu Yimithirr give directions exclusively using points of the compass. For example, you might hear “Your pen is on the table, just north of the fruit bowl. ” While this sounds strange in English, a Guugu Yimithirr speaker would see nothing odd about it. Linguists and anthropologists investigating this unusual trait discovered that Guugu Yimithirr speakers use subtle environmental cues to orient themselves to the points of the compass; specifically, they use the position of the sun, the position of landmarks, or the way that plants grow. In this way, they are always aware of where north, south, east and west are, although they can temporarily lose this ability if they move a large distance, for example if they fly to another region. A group of Guugu Yimithirr speakers who were flown to Brisbane—a journey of around 2000km—were unable to identify compass directions for around one week after their journey; thereafter, they became oriented and were able to communicate direction and position as they usually would.