Linguistics professor Daniel Everett explains the Piraha tribe word "xibipiio", a concept that does not exist in any other language:
EDIT: The complete video is available here:
http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/Daniel_Everett_Endangered_Languages_and_Lost_Knowledge
Some of the most salient points if you don't have time to watch the entire hour and a half long video:
-The Piraha have no creation myths.
-No counting words except "relatively big" amount and "relatively small" amount.
-Their concept of time is not linear. They do not understand the idea that "Future" and "Past" are separate. They have a word for "now", and a word for "some time away from now", which could be both in the future and in the past.
-No recursion, which is a supposedly essential part of human language! Chomsky might not be too happy about this...
Sunday, December 12, 2010
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