Submitted by: "Keith Milsom" <keithmilsom@anythingleft-handed.co.uk>
Hi Mickey
In this issue
1. Why are we left-handed?
2. Lefty nicknames
I hope you enjoy the newsletter and I would
be interested in any comments you may have.
You can email me at
keith@anythingleft-handed.co.uk
please include the text [newsletter 2] in
your subject line
1. WHY ARE WE LEFT-HANDED?
The short answer is that we are not really
sure. Theories seek to explain the dominance
of one hand either in terns of environment
and upbringing or through a gene-based
hereditary chain. No gene for left-handedness
has been found yet, but here are a few
theories.
* Sun-worship, with most of mankind being
in the Northern hemisphere and following
the sun across the sky from left to right,
established right as a favoured direction,
leading to right hand dominance
* The use of a shield in the left hand to
protect the heart on the left side of the
body led to the right hand being used to
hold weapons, which led to general right
dominance
* At birth babies are neither left or right
handed and the actions of those around
them will educate them into one side
being dominant
* Handedness is hereditary, transmitted
from parents to children
* Handedness is controlled by a genetic
bias, which is random but favours a
right-hand dominance
Take your pick! From personal experience,
we can disprove most of the theories just
in our family. Lauren and myself are both
left handed and our son is left handed as
well. With all these strong genetics and
a totally left handed environment
(especially as all of the implements in
our house are left handed as well) we are
amazed that our daughter showed very
strong right handed tendencies from birth
and at age 7 is a fully established
right hander.
There is one very strange thing though.
All of us left-handers eat with our fork
in the left and knife in the right,
which is normally considered right
handed eating and, being right handed
and with all of us to follow, you may
think our daughter would also eat right
handed.
But no, she insists on eating the other
way round, with her knife in the left
hand and her fork in right! Anyone got
any more theories about handedness?
2. LEFTY NICKNAMES
There are loads of word in the English
language meaning left-handed (and most
of them seem to be quite offensive, but
do we care?)
Have you heard of any of these?
Ballock Handed (Bristol)
Bang Handed (Tyne Tees)
Corrie Pawed (Scotland)
Cuddy Wifter (North)
Kack Handed (North)
Wacky Handed (Midlands)
We are also familiar with South Paw in
America
And what about
Greek, Skaios, Ill-omened, awkward
Italian, Mancini, Crooked, maimed
Spanish, Zurdo, not clever
French, Gauche , Awkward, clumsy
German, Links, Linkisch, Awkward
Latin, Sinister, On the left-hand side
(in English, also menacing and evil)
You can see more information about left-handed language and names on the UK Lefty web site at
www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/lefty_language.html
If you know any other nicknames or other
language versions of left-handed and
their meanings, please send us an email
and we will add them to our list
I hope you have found this information
interesting and fun and we would love to
hear from you.
Bye for now
Keith and Lauren Milsom
