1 Jun
2010
1 Jun
'10
12:02 p.m.
From: Liam Proven
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2010 5:20 PM
On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 7:45 PM, Rich Alderson
<RichA at vulcan.com> wrote:
> There is a language in the Amazon Basin, I believe
Pirah?, (and this is
> not like the "1,2,many" urban legend--there are write-ups in linguistic
> journals) which works in base 19. Each finger joint, the back of the
> hand, the wrist, the forearm, the upper arm, and the shoulder are the
> counting points.
This intrigued me and I went straight off to read
about it.
The Wikipedia article on Pirah? is pretty poor, but
I've done lots of
digging on the fascinating Prof Dan Everett and the Pirah? people and
it's an intriguing story. Thanks for the pointer.
However, from Everett himself, the Pirah? have no
numbers or counting
at all. They do have 1/2/many but Everett now reckons these are purely
relative assessments, not counting. 2 small fish are "h?i" (few,
because less) than one large fish ("ho?").
OK, the base-19 language will have been mentioned in one of the discussions
I ran across, on the Linguist mailing list or elsewhere, of Everett's claims
regarding Pirah?, when people were discussing exotic number systems. I do
remember feeling uneasy about the 1/2/many thing in Everett's claims.
It's amazing. The language, he argues, even lacks
recursion and thus
violates Chomsky's UG. Chomsky is thus infuriated and has disowned
Everett, who he calls a charlatan.
I also remember this. Were I not a believer in the statement below, I
would have serious misgivings regarding the reality of Pirah? myself.
> In human language, there is no such thing as
"the natural scheme of things".
Ain't that the truth...
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.PDPplanet.org/
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/