Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

This feature (based on WALS feature 129, by Cecil H. Brown) concerns the semantic identity or differentiation between the words meaning ‘hand’ (from the fingertips to the wrist) and ‘arm’ (from the wrist upwards). For the purposes of this feature, we consider only the forearm, from the wrist to the elbow. Of the several logical possibilities to partition the semantic space of the upper limb, the following are attested in the APiCS languages:

Identity: ‘Hand’ and ‘arm’ are not differentiated lexically, the same word is used to refer to both body parts and there is no word that denotes only ‘hand’ or only ‘arm’.

Differentiation: One word denotes 'hand' and another (possibly related) word denotes 'arm'.

Overlap: This covers cases of semantic overlap, where there are two different (possibly related) words, but one of them denotes ‘hand and arm’ and the other only ‘hand’ or only ‘arm’.