30 May
2013
30 May
'13
1:17 p.m.
From: Paul Hagstrom
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2013 12:37 AM
On May 29, 2013, at 1:59 AM, Pontus Pihlgren
<pontus at Update.UU.SE> wrote:
> I think you are thinking about the Pirah?. An
indigenous tribe in the
> Amazon.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYtBR2vfgzU
> (the link is to a trailer with some nice examples of whistling)
> The documentary seems somewhat biased and Noam
Chomsky is portrayed as
> bit of a dick.
Not to wander too far off topic (but I can't help
myself, given the
topic and being a linguist by profession). That trailer is completely
in character -- Everett seems always to aim to reveal the sensational
evidence that will destroy the underpinnings of scientific linguistic
research.
Most (all?) of what I've seen regarding the language of the Pirah? has been
postings on the Linguist mailing list; I've never been interested enough
to follow up, since most of those have made the language appear to be a
linguistic equivalent of INTERCAL in the world of computer science, and
my impressions of Mr. Everett seem to have been spot on.
Thanks for sharing your views. I, too, will withdraw from further discussion.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/