Red, black, and white hearts: ‘heart’, ‘liver’, and ‘lungs’ in typological and areal perspective

Abstract On the basis of a sample 424 languages or dialects, this article provides typological-comparative investigation designations for three major internal organs torso, ‘heart’, ‘liver’, and ‘lungs’. While colexification patterns are relatively unconstrained, data show skewing in morphologically complex terms: ‘heart’ ‘liver’ often serve as head nouns terms ‘lungs’, but reverse is rare. Another recurrent phenomenon that two –sometimes more frequently ‘lungs’– share their noun, distinguished from one another by modifiers refer to most salient characteristics, Azerbaijani aɣ ǯiyær ‘white ǯiyær’ = ‘lungs’ gara-ǯiyær ‘black-ǯiyær’ ‘liver’. Having thus set typological stage, I move on discuss different regions world which such have spread through language contact. This has happened Eurasia, where abovementioned pattern, call “explicitly dyadic”, was brought Turkish vernaculars Balkans and, likely influence, Southern Caucasus. Similar explicitly dyadic terms, based noun meaning also occur Andes, they appear Quechuan Barbacoan languages. The evidence not only shows form “semantic dyad” make use “opposed characteristics” world, therefore prone contact situations.