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Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express Numbers
In 2004 we discussed the Piraha, a tribe in the Amazon, when a study appeared characterizing their language as a "one, two, many" language. Now reader mu22le informs us of a new study of the Piraha pointing to the possibility that they use no number words at all. Instead they seem to use the word formerly thought to mean "two" to represent a quantity of 5 or 6, and the "one" word for anything from 1 to 4. The language has about 300 native speakers. "The study... offers evidence that number words are a concept invented by human cultures as they are needed, and not an inherent part of language, Gibson said."
Has no word to express.. uhhmm... forgot what it's called now.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
??? Have no words for numbers
???
???
??? Profit!
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
then there's also no way to collect taxes. I should move...
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How do they indicate successful termination of their C programs?
The use the WingDings font.
Should be "one, two, many"
KDawson, you got a link to your own website wrong, on your own website. You n00b.
I heard they have discovered that some ancient tribes in the world are still using imperial measurement. Hard to believe!
Here's their assigned IPv4 network range:
many.many.many.many/small
They are nowhere using it up, so thankfully they have no plans to migrate to IPv6. (Which is a good thing because if I tried this joke with an IPv6 address, it would probably trigger the lameness filter.)
Too many?
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
Sir I don't know where you do your trading, but I can get you 2 baskets of peas for 5 ears of corn.
In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
Instead they seem to use the word formerly thought to mean "two" to represent a quantity of 5 or 6, and the "one" word for anything from 1 to 4.
Bartenders and police officers in the US dealing with drunks are very familiar with this method of counting.
Lots!
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Do we get to choose which particular English speakers we send there? I've started a list already (*mumblegrumble!@$Fskn*motherinlaw*).
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
...and they were first clued in on this number system when they asked how many people were in their tribe and the answer was "two"...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
It would also be funnier.
"Take cover, the rookie is compiling his first code!"
"We're all gonna die!"
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
"Boopai, the white men are coming. Remind the six Kaaxai sisters that it is forbidden to utter our sacred number words in front of the outsiders."
"Yes, Pibaoi, I shall tell them. I will return in 36 minutes, approximately 5 minutes before the outsiders reach the village."
"Good man, Boopai."
"Oh, and Boopai, while you are there, get the 113 exchange-beads the sisters owe me from 3 months ago."
"Yes, Pibaoi, I will."
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
No fee needed - it's under a Destructive Commons License. :)
I see nothing really wrong here. Where I live people routinely give non descriptive meaning to words as numbers. I'm learned not to try to figure it out but just accept it. I mean who really knows what the difference is between a ass-load and a shit-load. Or how much is really in a fuck ton.
Just smile and nod, that's what I do.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Nah, we'd just write everything in Perl. Pretty much any sequence of characters is a valid Perl program. Don't ask me what it does, but it's a valid program.
I mean who really knows what the difference is between a ass-load and a shit-load. Or how much is really in a fuck ton.
Well, to be fair the fuck ton is defined in terms of shit-loads; the shit-load is defined in terms of an ass-load; and the ass-load is defined by a fecal mass stored in a hermetically sealed container in a vault in France. Finally, for reasons no one has found, the fecal mass is changing.
Anyway my point is that unit confusion is not unreasonable in this case.
You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle