Why do some languages have no words for left and right?

Some languages have no words for left and right because they describe all of space with fixed, geographic directions instead: north, south, east and west. Australian Aboriginal languages such as Guugu Yimithirr, Kayardild and Kuuk Thaayorre have no words for directions relative to your body, and speakers use cardinal directions even for tiny spaces. To ask you to shift over on a car seat, a speaker might say 'move a bit to the east'. To warn you, they might point out 'that big ant just north of your foot'.

Left and right change every time you turn around; north does not. A language built on north and south therefore asks its speakers to know, at every moment, which way they are facing. Researchers report that they do. Kuuk Thaayorre speakers navigate better than English speakers and always know their orientation, and Guugu Yimithirr speakers have given accurate route directions using compass points plus a gesture toward the starting direction. This is a favourite example in the debate over whether language shapes thought, though some basic spatial abilities develop in babies largely independently of language.

These languages are not rare curiosities: similar 'geographic languages' exist from Polynesia to Mexico and from Namibia to Bali. And you already use one Guugu Yimithirr word: kangaroo.