Piraha: counting & The Story of One

[Amy West]

I was away for a while and was very glad to follow the Piraha
discussion. I had heard a bit about it on NPR's Weekend Edition, I
believe. From that story, I was most interested in the lack of
recursion; I wasn't intrigued so much by the counting.

However, the focus of this discussion has reminded me that I saw a
bit about counting in Australian Aboriginal languages in Terry Jones'
_The Story of One_. They had a younger aboriginal talking to his
older uncle and demonstrate how the uncle counted -- I can't recall
the specifics of the counting.

---Amy West

>Date:    Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:05:41 -0400
>From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: Piraha
>
>Isn't "They can count only to two" an antiquated fallacy, based on a
>misunderstaning of the way that the culture uses number, that was
>first applied to the languages of Australia a century ago? I seem to
>remember a discussion of this claim as a fallacy in Pei's book, The
>Story of Language. Of course, I am more than aware that no "real"
>linguist takes anything that ol' Mario has to say seriously. I first
>heard his ideas shat upon by barracks-mates at the old Army Language
>School back in 1960.
>
>And yes, I have read Colapinto's article.
>
>-Wilson

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