HolQeD 8:4 (p. 6-10) saysIt is also possible (though the Sakrej folks tend not to do this) to use the full pronoun plus locative noun construction with the directional nouns: jIH chan "east of me" (literally <I area eastward>). There is a slight meaning difference between jIH chan, using the full pronoun, and chanwIj, using the possessive suffix, however. The construction with the full pronoun emphasize the pronoun (in this case "I," the speaker him-herself) as the reference point; the construction with the pronominal suffix is more neutral. Thus, chanwIj is <east of me, east of where I am, east of here> but jIH chan is <east of ME, to MY east>.
Very good. I'd forgotten that bit from the HolQeD article.
Of course, this prompts the question of whether "area eastward"
is somehow inherently different than "area above"...
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name