[Lexicog] Words that are absent

[Wayne Leman]

The Cheyennes, one of the most well-known of the North American Native American tribes, have no word for "tribe." They simply refer to each tribe, including themselves, by that tribe's name.

Wayne
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Wayne Leman
http://committed.to/fieldtesting
  David,

  I work with a highly individualistic group in Panama (also in Colombia). For the most part, foreign ideas such as those we are faced with in translating the Bible can be communicated. But since you are looking for cases where the culture dictates the lack of certain words, I have one. The individualistic Emberas have no word for "group". They have plenty of words for activities that groups do, they differentiate collective and individualized plural number and so on, but no word for "group".

  -Chaz MOrtensen
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