{"id":450,"date":"2010-11-30T21:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T04:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=450"},"modified":"2010-11-30T21:00:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T04:00:58","slug":"dont-sleep-there-are-snakes-a-conlangers-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: A Conlanger’s Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle<\/a> recounts the experiences and research of author Daniel Everett with the Pirahã. Their language, also known as Pirahã, is notorious in linguistics circles for numerous traits uncovered by Everett. The New Yorker<\/a> published an extensive article about Everett and his work in 2007 that does a good job of introducing readers to the controversy. Being neither a professional linguist nor having a particular linguistic axe to grind, I can’t contribute anything to that debate (nor would I want to wade into those waters); however, I can share some thoughts on the book and its story from a layperson’s perspective as well as provide some interesting conlinguistic<\/em> titbits that the book has to offer.<\/p>\n

The book’s title comes from a common "Good night" phrase that the Pirahã say and is good advice for a culture living deep in the Amazon jungle. The native culture in which Everett and his family find themselves is vividly portrayed (and not sugar-coated). The book’s first section, roughly two-thirds, recounts the story of Everett and his family among the Pirah\u00c3\u00a3; the last third goes into more depth on the Pirahã language itself. Both sections are fascinating and include glimpses of the missionary zeal of Everett and his wife, unsettling cultural practices of the Pirah\u00c3\u00a3, humorous cross-cultural incidents, and much more.<\/p>\n

As usual, in book reviews here at The Conlanging Librarian, let’s examine some interesting linguistic twists that an enterprising conlanger might take advantage of from Pirahã. We’ll avoid the ones that many people may already know, including the language’s lack of recursion (see here<\/a>). The first concept that struck me was the idea of kagi<\/em>. Let’s take some examples from the text to see this in action first:<\/p>\n