And if so, how do they label headphones, contact lenses etc?

  • allywilson
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    9 months ago

    Chinese I think?

    • Left - Zuǒbiān
    • Right - zhèngquè de

    Not sure if that counts, considering it’s using the Latin alphabet and the language is tonal, etc.

    EDIT: and Ilocano:

    • Left - kannigid
    • Right - kusto

    EDIT2: and Indonesian:

    • Left - kiri
    • Right - Kanan

    EDIT3: and Irish:

    • Left - chlé
    • Right - ceart

    Going to stop now. I’m literally just choosing languages in google translate.

    • Nefrayu@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Ah the dangers of Google translate and synonyms. You got the wrong definition for right when translating to Irish, the one you have means correct, deis is the word for right (direction). Clé is left, the h appears in certain contexts for grammatical reasons.

        • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          Sorta the concept behind Twisted Translations, previously known as Google Translate Sings. Though they are intentionally getting a bad result by feeding the Translations through several languages before coming back to English.

      • Thavron@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Amazingly, the Dutch version of SharePoint has made this mistake. There is an option, I believe when making columns on a page or something, for “Links” (left) and “Goed” (right/correct).

    • ylph@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Chinese is also not right - 正确的 (zhèngquè de) means “proper”

      Left and Right as the sides are 左 (zuǒ) and 右 (yòu) - you can also add 邊 (biān) to each which means “side” to be more explicit, but they are also used separately in many contexts where the left/right meaning is needed.

      The Chinese characters for 左 and 右 actually originated as pictograms of the left and right hand in the early forms of Chinese writing, but later forms both contain general “hand” component (𠂇) with components 工 and 口 added for differentiation

    • ZapSNH@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      There’s also Filipino:

      • left - kaliwa
      • right - kanan

      also we use L and R for things because we speak English too.