I am often baffled by Mr. V's love of XKCD - it just leaves me cold most of the time - but today's cartoon is absolutely brilliant. (HT to Nate C-K for sending it to me.)
I also love the remark from the Wikipedia Piraha Language article that one of the XKCD forumizers spotted:
"The controversy is compounded by the sheer difficulty of learning the language; the number of linguists with field experience in Pirahã can be counted on one hand, albeit not by the Pirahã themselves."
(Sadly, someone seems to have edited it out, though. Anyone want to add it back in?)
LOVE it.
ReplyDeleteI also love the remark from the Wikipedia Piraha Language article that one of the XKCD forumizers spotted:
ReplyDelete"The controversy is compounded by the sheer difficulty of learning the language; the number of linguists with field experience in Pirahã can be counted on one hand, albeit not by the Pirahã themselves."
(Sadly, someone seems to have edited it out, though. Anyone want to add it back in?)
Except Piraha doesn't actually have words for "one" or "two" either. This sounds like more Munduruku!
ReplyDeleteExcept Piraha doesn't actually have words for "one" or "two" either.
ReplyDeleteExcept it does.