The Pirahã (pronounced pee-da-HAN) of northwestern Brazil speak a language that is challenging linguistic theories. John Colapinto in the April 16 issue of The New Yorker writes that linguist Dan Everett, one of the first to learn the difficult Pirahã language, has concluded that Pirahã seems to lack some of the irreducible language elements that linguists have come to expect. In “Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã,” Everett notes the “extreme simplicity of the tribe’s living conditions and culture,” which are reflected in their language:

The Pirahã, Everett wrote, have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for ‘all,’ ‘each,’ ‘every,’ ‘most,’ or ‘few’ — terms of quantification believed by some linguists to be among the common building blocks of human cognition. [For a discussion of their number concepts, see the NPR Talk of the Nation program.] Everett’s most explosive claim, however, was that Pirahã displays no evidence of recursion, a linguistic operation that consists of inserting one phrase inside another of the same type, as when a speaker combines discrete thoughts (“the man is walking down the street,” “the man is wearing a top hat”) into a single sentence (“The man who is wearing a top hat is walking down the street”). (Colapinto 120)

The lack of recursion is particularly vexing because, as Colapinto points out, “Noam Chomsky, the influential linguistic theorist, has recently revised his theory of universal grammar, arguing that recursion is the cornerstone of all languages, and is possible because of a uniquely human capability.”

When I first listened to Pirahã speech at a religious site — interestingly, Everett started out as a Christian missionary who became a scientist because of his language abilities and exposure to the Pirahã — I had the impression that there were fewer sounds than one might expect, but I didn’t think that their speech sounded like singing as Everett has suggested. On the other hand, this recording was made for religious purposes, so perhaps the speaker was reading a script.

But then after listening to the excellent NPR piece on Everett, I was more fascinated. In addition to a brief discussion of the linguistic theories and the controversy Everett has stirred up, you hear the Pirahã speaking. Intriguing doesn’t begin to describe the nature of the exchanges. And then Everett demonstrates the flexibility of their language by saying a sentence, whistling it, and finally by humming the sentence. It’s amazing that these three forms convey the same information. And yes, indeed, the language does sound more like singing than speaking.

For more also see Dan Everett’s website at Illinois State.