South-southeast

Lera Boroditsky writes that instead of employing such terms as “right,” “left,” “forward” and “back,” which are relative to an observer, many Indigenous people of Australia will exclusively use cardinal directions — north, south, east or west. To speak properly, one must stay oriented at all times. The correct response to a normal greeting — “Where are you going?” — is something like “South-southeast, in the middle distance,” but if you don’t know which way you’re facing, you can’t even get past “Hello.”

South-southeast is the lucky direction of the year.

A south-southeast course.

A south-southeast wind.

We are travelling south-southeast at the moment.