War of words over tribal tongue (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

War of words over tribal tongue
Debate highlights pitfalls in studying minority languages.

Eugenie Samuel Reich
09 May 2012
US

It wasn’t long after his translation of the Gospel of St Mark failed to
interest the Pirahã tribe members he was trying to convert to Christianity
that Daniel Everett, then a missionary and linguistic anthropologist, began
to doubt what he had learned about the foundations of human language.

Thirty years on, Everett, now at Bentley University in Waltham,
Massachusetts, has long since left missionary work, but his study of the
Pirahã tongue has increasingly cast him in the role of heretic in a battle
over the influence of culture in shaping the structure of a language. The
debate has resurfaced with the publication in March of his book Language:
The Cultural Tool and a related television documentary scheduled to be
broadcast this week in the United States. But as Everett’s controversial
views gain attention, other scholars are beginning to question his
interpretations.

Access full article below:
http://www.nature.com/news/war-of-words-over-tribal-tongue-1.10595
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