Aymara Language: The Future Is Behind You, The Past is In Front Of You

Jun 26, 2009

» Aymara Language: The Future Is Behind You, The Past is In Front Of You

The speakers of Aymara, an Indian language of the high Andes, think of time differently than just about everyone else in the world:

Most of us describe the future as ahead or in front of us, and the past as behind us. Until the view of the Aymara speakers was deconstructed, no significant exceptions to this way of thinking about time had been demonstrated….

…the Aymara call the future qhipa pacha/timpu, meaning back or behind time, and the past nayra pacha/timpu, meaning front time. And they gesture ahead of them when remembering things past, and backward when talking about the future.

…the Aymara speakers see the difference between what is known and not known as paramount, and what is known is what you see in front of you, with your own eyes.

The past is known, so it lies ahead of you. (Nayra, or “past,” literally means eye and sight, as well as front.) The future is unknown, so it lies behind you, where you can’t see.

I blogged this three years ago, but it’s still blows my mind…

See also: HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? By Lera Boroditsky