As discussed at https://www.languagetrainers.com.au/blog/2014/08/languages-that-dont-use-left-or-right/, Guugu Yimithirr, an Australian aboriginal language, is one of several languages that don't express position or direction in terms of left, right, front, and back, but in terms of the cardinal directions north, south, east, west. This requires constant awareness of one's geographic orientation.
This seems to preclude the use of these languages in a number of modern contexts and, in particular, to preclude translation into them from other languages, at least without the translator constantly having to make up the compass orientation of everything and everyone relative to which directions and positions are being related. For example, if a book says "Jake looked up and saw Kate standing in front of him", how would a translator handle that? Would the translator have to decide, arbitrarily, that Jake is facing east, and write, "Jake, facing east, looked up and saw Kate standing to his east?" Would a book explaining that "While English is written left to right, Arabic is written right to left" have to be translated as "If you are facing south, English is written east to west while Arabic is written west to east"? Or have these languages lately developed means of expressing relative position without reference to the cardinal directions?
