This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From YKTTW Working Title: Whorf Was Right
But language is a system of reference; lacking a word for "remote control" implies lacking remote controls. You might as well make up a trope called "gravity" about how, in movies, things tend to accelerate downward at roughly 10 meters per second. Subverted with feathers!
"The language of the Piraha doesn't include any numbers (besides "one" and "lots"). When they discovered it was nearly impossible for their own adults to grasp even simple arithmetic, the tribal leaders decided (possibly the first time anyone has done this voluntarily) to abandon their own language and teach the children Portuguese first. "
Really ??? Hate to go all Wikipedia here, but source ? Speaking of Wikipedia, I've had a look on its Pirahã and it looks like 1) Everything we know on the Pirahã comes from the few anthropologists who met them, and those don't always agree with each other, so yeah, and 2) The Pirahã don't speak Portugese very well at all. Between that, and the fact they don't mention the "incapable to grasp simple arithmetic" part or the "abandoning their language and teaching their kids Portugese" part, both of which are momentous and you'd expect they'd be mentioned... I call shenanigans.
