The Lexical Divide: Humans vs. Animals in Language

The distinction between nose and snout, or face and muzzle, is not unique to English. For example, German uses mund for a human mouth versus maul for muzzle/gape, and essen for human eating while fressen for an animal eating. Similarly, Japanese distinguishes humans and animals through numeral classifiers, using 人 (-nin) for humans and 匹 (-hiki) for most small and medium-sized animals, for example, san-nin (‘three people’) versus san-biki (‘three animals’). 

This phenomenon in linguistics can be described as human–non-human lexical differentiation, whereby languages employ different lexemes depending on whether the referent is human or non-human. Cross-linguistic evidence suggests that such distinctions are associated with functional-communicative efficiency, anthropocentric bias, and sociolinguistic indexicality in the conceptualization of humans and non-humans. Many of these non-human lexemes can also be used metaphorically to humans in derogatory, insulting, or dehumanizing situations. 

In many Indo-Aryan languages, this is especially evident in body-part terminology, as in Hindi मुँह mũh (mouth) vs थूथन thūthan (muzzle, snout), कलेजा kalejā (human liver) vs कलेजी kalējī (animal liver), स्तन / चूची stan/chūcī (breasts of women) vs थन than (udder) of animals, etc.

A pregnant animal is called गाभिन gabhin, while a pregnant woman is called गर्भवती garbhavatī and by various other terms. When an animal gives birth to a calf, the verb used is ब्याना byānā, whereas when a woman gives birth, verbs such as जन्म देना janma denā, जनना jananā, and जन्माना janmānā are used. खाँसना (to cough) is used when humans cough, whereas ढाँसना ḍhā̃snā is used when animals cough.

Marathi distinguishes मुसके muske (muzzle) for animals vs तोंड tōṇḍ (mouth, face) for humans, and विणे viṇe for animals vs जन्म देणे (janma deṇe, ‘to give birth’) for humans.

Apart from the examples similar to Hindi, Bengali uses স্তন stan (breast) for humans while ওলান (olān) ‘udder’ for animals.

In Nepali, we have सन्ताने santānē (docile) for animals, but  गाई gāī, सुधो sudhō or साधु sādhu for humans who are docile and innocent.

Punjabi (western) uses ਪੁੱਠ puṭṭh more frequently for back of load bearing animals while it uses ਕੰਢ Kanḍ for back of humans. Animals that are pregnant are referred to as ਗਾਭਣ (gābhaṇ).

Humans are described as ਗਰਭਵਤੀ (Garbhavatī) or using descriptive phrases like ਉਦਰਵਤੀ (Udravatī) / expecting a child (ਜੀਅ ਨਾਲ ਹੋਣਾ / ਗਰਭ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੋਣਾ).

In Gujarati, a pregnant animal is called ગાਭਣ (gābhaṇ), while a pregnant woman is called સગર્ભા (sagarbhā) or ગર્भवती (garbhavatī). When an animal gives birth, the verb used is વેਣਾ (veṇā) or સૂવું (sūvuṁ), whereas when a woman gives birth, phrases such as જન્મ આપવો (janma āpavo) and પ્રસૂતિ થવી (prasūti thavī) are used.

For body parts, ચામડી (chāmaḍī) is used for human skin, while છાલ (chhāl) or ખાલ (khāl) is used for animal hide. Similarly, પગ (pag) is used for human legs and feet, whereas પંજો (pañjo) or ખુર (khur) is used for animal paws and hooves.

These lexical distinctions show that, like many other languages of the world, several Indian languages encode aspects of the human–non-human distinction in their lexicons. Such semantic boundaries reflect deeply ingrained perceptions and categorizations of human versus non-human existence in languages.