Posted with permission from Dr Daniel Everett. Original video, and notes on which I based the subtitle track, can be found here: [BROKEN LINK] llc.illinoissta...
I changed the title from "with subtitles" to "with transcription" because the word "subtitles" very sensibly made a lot of people think there would be a translation in English or some other language they understand.
@VisualPlugin the Multilingual Programmer I don't think the language has a script of its own, so would it really be considered transliteration to write the language in latin characters?
0001C6.MP4 00:00:17 Ti baabihia saagoai ‘Am I getting ill?’ (joking comment made by Kaiowa to himself as he waits) 00:00:25 Dan to Kaiowa: Baihiigi ‘(taping) goes slowly’ Kaiowa to Dan: Xai baihiigi. Xaio. ‘Yeah. Slowly. That’s right.’ 00:00:30 Kaiowa to himself: Xitaibigaisi kapiigakagakaa ‘Sarah writes a lot’ 00:00:43 Dan to kaiowa Xai xigiaoaxai gixai xahoaati topagahai. Xai xaoi xaibai xoikapioxiai kobaisogabagai hiaitiihi xigiaoaxai? Yeah, is it OK for you to speak to the recorder? There are many foreigners in other jungles who want to see the Pirahas. Is that OK? Kaiowa to Dan: Xigiai ‘OK’ 00:01:01 Kaiowa to Dan: Xai xigiai kapiiga hiahoai. ‘OK I will talk to the paper/image’ 00:01:04 Xoogiai higogaisai. Xaooi xaaibai xaitii. Xaibaisi? ‘Dan, what did you say? There are foreigners (who want to see ) the Pirahas? Many?’ 00:01:07 Dan to Kaiowa Xaoi xaoxaaga xoi kapioxio. Higaisai kobaisoogabagai hiaitiihi. Xai saaibasi kobaisai. ‘There are foreigners in another jungle. They say we want to see the Pirahas. Thus into the camera they look.’ Xai gixai xaahoaiso. Xigihai xoi kapioxiai. Xigioawaxai? Thus when you finish speaking, I will take it to another jungle (for them to see). OK?’ 00:01:20 Kaiowa to Dan: Xigiai ‘OK’ 00:01:23 Kaiowa to Dan Xai xigiai xaaga. Tigaisai. Xigiaixaaga. Xaoii xoai? ‘Well, OK then. I speak. OK then. Foreigners in the (other) jungle?’ Kaiowa then says ‘OK. I want to see a lot of foreigners.’ 00:01:43 Kaiowa to Dan Tii hiaibasigi kobaisoogabagai. Hi hoihi. Hi hoihiai gaihi. (he holds up two fingers) ‘I a whole lot want to see. There is a small (amount here). There is a small amount here. (notice that even though he holds up two fingers, he clearly doesn’t mean two, since he is referring to the entire population of the Piraha. He is here talking about his desire to see a lot of people together, which is something the Pirahas never see in the village.) 00:01:53 Paoxai hiobaisogabagai. Hiaibasigi. Xai hiaibasigi hiobasoogabagai. Hiaibasigi. Hiobaisoogabai. Gai. Xooopai hiobasoogabai. Hiaibasigi. ‘Paoxai wants to see. A whole lot (of people). Thus a whole lot he wants to see. A really whole lot. He wants to see. Here. Xooopai he wants to see. A whole lot (of foreigners).’ 00:02:09 Xai piiaikooi. Boitohoi xigopihiabikoi. Xai boitohoi kahapihiabaa. Xao hiobasoogabai hiaibasigii. hiaibasigii. Yes. The water is shallow. The boat cannot go up there. Thus the boat will not go. The foreigners want to see a lot. A lot. Hi hoihiai gai. Xai hi hoihiai gai. Pasabii (Passar Bem - the name in Portuguese of the beach we are interviewing him at.) There are only a few here. (literally, there is one here, if hoi (falling tone) meant one.) Xaooi hi xaokasabii pasabii, gai. ‘Foreigners he calls this place Passar Bem.’ Xai hoagahiai hiatii hi xaaibaai. Xai xaaibai. ‘Thus at Hoagahiai (Passar Bem) there are many Pirahas. Thus a lot.’ Hoagahia xiga xai. Xai hoagahia xiga xaaibaai. Hoagahia xai gixai soxoa. ‘At Hoagahiai. Thus at Hoagahiai there are many. You already know Hoagahia.’ Xai ti xabaxai hi ahoai topaaga. Xai gai. Tii. ‘Thus I alone speak to the recorder. Thus here. Me.’ Kabaha. xaibahiabaha gai. Tii xabaati. Xioitabii gai. ‘There is nothing. Not many here. I stay. Xioitabii (his wife) here.’ Bahaio piaii. Xai hoaowii. Tiiowi piaii. Xai Tiiowi saiu ai morar, goo. Xabaxai. Kaahai kabaha xaibasi. Hoii. (one - but here he holds up TWO fingers!) Hoihi. ‘Bahaio (his child) also. Thus Hoaowii (shotgun; name of another of his children). Thus Shit (the name of another of his children) went to live there (goo is also used as a question word.) Xai Palhal hoii. Piaii. Agora, gaihi. Ti piaii. Hoihi. Hoihi. Kabaha. Xaibahiaba. ‘Thus (at the place called) Palhal there are few. Now, here. I also. Few. Few. None. Not many.’ Agora hoagahiai xaaibaai hiaitiihi. Xai hiaitiihi hiaaibaai hiaitiihi. Hoagahiai xiga. Xai gaihi. ‘Now at Hoagahiai (there are) many Piraha. Thus Piraha are many Piraha. Hoagahiai at. Thus here.’ Hoihiigiai hi. Hoihiigiai hi. Xaooi xaokasabii flechal. Xai hiaitiihi xaaibaai piaii. ‘Hoigiigiai (lit: at the place of arrows or arrow shaft material) here. Hoihiigiai here. Foreigners call this Flechal (at the place of arrows or arrow shaft material).(Names in Portuguese and Piraha match up in this case!) Hoihiigiai. Hoigiigiai piaii. Hiaaibaai. Xai hiaitiihi, xoi hiaokasai hoihiigiai. Xai, flechal. Xai xaoi xao hiaokasabii. Xai hiaitiihi hiaokasabii hoihiigiai. Hoihiigiai (in answer to me). ‘Hoigiigiai. Hoigiigiai also. Many. Thus Piraha, jungle (‘place’) calls Hoihiigiai. Thus, Flechal. Thus foreigners foreigner (prefix) he calls it. Thus the Pirahas call it Hoihiigiai. Hoihiigiai.’ Gaihi. Hoagaihiaihi hiaitiihi. Mais para ca. Hoagaihiaihi. Xaaibaai hiaitiihi, hoagaihiai. Hoagaihiai. ‘Here. At Hoagaihiaii (there are Piraha). More towards here. Hoagaihiaihi. There are many Pirahas at Hoagaihiaihi. (At) Hoagaihiaihi.’ Xai gixai saabi (sabe) hoagaihiai. ‘Thus you (already) know Hoagaihiai.’ 00:03:57 Kaiowa continues Xai tigaisai. ‘Thus I say.’ Hiahoai topaagahai agora. ‘I speak to the recorder now.’ Gai Kabagai xabaxaigio. Xai xabaxaigio Kabagai. ‘Here Kabagai (Piraha woman) lives alone (not really - her husband lives with her). Thus alone Kabagai.’ Hiaitii kaba. Kapioxiai. ‘There are no Pirahas. No others.’ (This is not literally true, since her husband is always with her.) Xai quase gai. Gai passa bem xibagai. ‘Thus almost here. Here at Passar Bem, at the side of.’ Xaibai hiai koihi. Quase xai muito hiai. Xai xaibai hioihiai xai hi. Baagi. ‘Many there are few’ Almost there are a lot. Thus many at this jungle thus here. Many.’ Baagiso xaaga gai. (holds up five fingers). Baagiso. ‘Many are here. Many.’ 00:04:19 Xai ti piai hoihio (one - obviously not literally! He is talking about his entire family). ‘Thus I also am one.’ (My family has only a few people is what this actually means.) Xai Tiapaobii piaii. Hoi (one/small amount). Xaaibahiaba. ‘Thus Bernardo also. One. Not many.’ (Bernardo’s family is also small. So there are not many where he lives either.) Xai Tiapaobii xaaibahiaba. Gaihi. Kabai. ‘Thus Bernardo (where he lives) there aren’t many. Here. No one/nothing’ Hoagaihiai. Xaaibai Hiaitiihi. Xai hoagaihiai xaaibai. ‘At Hoagaihiai. There are many Piraha. Thus at Hoagaihiai there are many.’ Gai hoihigiai piaii. Xaaibaai. Hiaitii. ‘Here at Flechal also. There are many. Pirahas.’ Coata (Brazilian name) piaii. Xaaibaai hiatii. Xaaibaai tiobahai. Xai xiga. Xaaibaai Coata. ‘At Coata also. There are many Pirahas. Many children. Thus there.’ Xai. Paagagisai, nome xaooi. Gixai soxoa conhece xai. Xai Coata, mais para ca Coata. Xai Coata xaaibaai. ‘Thus. Paagagisai (what we call the foreign name, Coata) You already know it. Thus Coata, more towards here. Coata. Thus at Coata many.’ 00:04:56 Dan to Kaiowa Xai ti xahoai xaooi. ‘Ok. I am going to talk to the foreigner (Randall).’ Kaiowa to Dan Xigiai. ‘OK’
Some fools decided 8 years ago to give them power and an idiot box. Give it two generations for them to become depressed alcoholics relying on govt hand outs.
Rave Runner, Everett and others who have spent time with the tribe say the happiness quotient is off the charts. It's worth reading Everett's book about them.
something that lends a lot to the unique sound of this language is the fact that it only has three vowel sounds, "A," "I," and "O," which can all be pronounced in a variety of different ways, some of which carry meaning. Most of the meaning in this language, as far as linguists can tell, is carried in the rhythm and tone with which a phrase is said - for this reason, Pirahã speakers can hum or whistle entire sentences with basically no loss of information.
Reading "Don't sleep, there are snakes" at the moment, and it's so good to get to hear the language spoken here. Thank you so much for sharing this, and thank you to the Piraha man for sharing his language with us like this.
Take it with a grain of salt, at least the linguistic stuff; Everett has been called out on a lot of it, there are many linguistic errors in his work. Overall it's a good book though, but more so from the sociocultural perspective rather than the linguistic.
@@hoon_sol Tbh, the expanse of this linguistic argument is beyond my ken. Here for the stories. To that end, I'm enthralled by the lightness in this man's expression and would love to know his take on the interview process, all of the equipment, etc. Everett wrote about the happiness of this tribe - both collectively and individually. Is it connected to their language? I've no idea how such things can be measured or studied. Cheers to those who make stabs at translating what matters.
@@mortalclown3812: Extremely unlikely. The vast majority of linguistic evidence supports universal grammar, and that all people ultimately have the same internal linguistic structures. My guess is that them being so happy is a combination of living in the natural human habitat (the tropical equatorial rainforest, where we evolved for tens of millions of years) and a culture of peace and cooperation without any social hierarchy at all.
I'm reading it right now as well. To me it seems that there's a confusion between tones and stresses, as if they are the same thing, and I thought that this is not the case. But I'm no linguist so...
Piraha had a lot of words that it just didn't have. With the rising prevalence of Portuguese schools, Portuguese is moving into the language. For example, Piraha had no words for specific numbers... now they count in Portuguese. I wouldn't be surprised if Portuguese eventually completely overtakes Piraha.
just get very drunk and there, that's how they percieve the world. Well not exactly.. but you have to think of not being able to count/store the idea of a quantity in mind, and of only being able to get a very vague idea of any abstract thought ( not only the language makes it hard to do so, but they seem to have a cultural prejudice against talking about an abstract thought outside of the here and now ). Without appropriate language, our brain cannot hold on to thoughts, a little like in memento
@@tacchinotacchi We developed numbers when we needed them. For example, "million" is Latin for "grand thousand", because only when Romans build their empire that they needed a word for millions. "Billion" is "million" but with Greek prefix "bi-" meaning two.
@@Grave_of_flower147 Wait there’s no way you actually speak it. I would love to learn this language though tbh, especially because of the way you could hum it and it sounds like music
I just finished reading Dr. Everett's book Don't Sleep There Are Snakes not 5 minutes ago, it was very interesting. And I wanted to say thank you for posting this video, I think its amazing to be able to to hear the language.
Languages are a beautiful mirror into the mind and culture of peoples. Learning languages is more mind-expanding than any drugs (might be more hard work, though...)
Xai xigiaoaxaixi gixai xahoaati topogahai. Xai xaooi xaaibai xoikapioxiai kobaisogabagai hiaitiihi xigiaoaxai? At the end of these sentences, Everett sounds like he's out of breath.
Piraha scarely in fact perfectly sounds like something when we and my Hellenic brothers did in the past pseudo-imitating foreign langauges without putting any effort ending with a long string of mindless vowels. We are Hellenes, we imitated "Arabic" in days long past this way along with not imitating language at all. It was a form of relaxation speaking vowel-drunk gibberish making humour at home and it was soothing. Everett must relax and stop deepening his voice and his vowels. Make yourself sound like a dunk wimp is my advice for speaking Piraha.
I noticed that immediately as well -- it's almost like the language is designed so one never has to break their smile to speak it. I would give up almost anything to go live with these people, the only thing preventing it is that I couldn't leave my loved ones.
Dr Everette is speaking to him. Fascinating book "Dont Sleep, there Are Snakes" Just amazing, on where language comes from and how we are influenced so much by our culture.
Really interesting to hear. I first encountered Piraha on a CD of songs from Brazilian native tribes something like 20 years ago. Then just recently I was reading Daniel Everett's recent book about language where he talks about his experiences with the Piraha, and the link to some MP3s he provided in the book didn't work, so I just went looking on TH-cam.
@@meusisto Oh, after 6 years (given the date of my original comment) I have no idea what I was looking for anymore, or even what that original CD was...
Holy crap! It would take SO MUCH immersion to be able to tell apart them vowels. O.O I mean, same vowels, different lengths... different meanings... I want to know what he sayyysss!!
During his speech he said few words in Portuguese, such as "agora" "mais pra ca" and on.. You will realize when you see something diferent than "Xaihaiyai Ha hikotobai"
Yep, at first I thought they were completely reluctant to have loanwords, but it turns out that with outside communication, they eventually adopted some.
This comment thread: abandon all hope ye who enter here. This is an abyss of linguistic relativism and astonishing racism and stupidity. For the love of god, just turn back, it's not worth it.
Such a beautiful and gentle looking people. What a travesty that has happened and is happening in their land. Huge shame to think about the rich cultures and diversity that land once had in abundance prior to the invasion and what is left now. Hope their language and culture does what many others haven't and that is survive and thrive in what they call the 'new world'.
Not really beautiful alot of slavery and human sacrifice in the more developed areas like in the Inca and Aztec empires and alot of people living in huts speaking gibberish languages unable to count and fighting tribal wars with eachother constantly in the less developed areas. The fact they are powerless and weak victims right now makes them seem docile and nice but they are as capable of horrific behaviour as any other kind and gentle looking group of humans.
@@mojeo522 ye wait wait are you a Swede? Because of all the umlauts. Swedes hate Catholics. But if you're a Swede and like Catholics, you're a better Swede.
People need to stop talking about modern man as though we are alien -- foreign to Earth and a blight on the planet. We are also part of Earth's biodiversity.
Here because reading "Don't Sleep, There are Snakes." It's so wild to read how isolated the Piraha language was when he started in the late 70's, and now I can hop on TH-cam and find it in a few clicks!
It's also a tonal language which means several words that sound the same to a speaker of a non-tonal language like English are actually distinct words with very different meanings.
Is he smiling from happiness, or is it because he is nervous? I too feel nervous when I am interviewed on camera. Smiling is a universal form of communication, and I believe it is a way of saying "Please be kind to me, please have mercy on me"... that kind of thing.
Robert Sullivan Yes, and there's probably an element of being astonished by the technological differences on display. Fascination and amazement may not seem like they'd be big for us modernfolk, but the technological leap here would be huge.
As a brazilian Portuguese speaker I could understand about 0,000001% of what they said 😂😂, only the portuguese words and expressions: 2:55 = Saiu (went out) / Morar (reside) 3:06, 3:12 & 3:59 = Agora (now) 3:23 & 3:35 = Flechal (a place in the Amazon forest) 3:47 & 4:50 = Mais pra cá (nearby) 4:07 = Passa bem (to feel good) 4:10 = Quase / Muito (almost / very) 4:46 = Nome (name) 4:48 = Conhece (to know someone or something).
I’m an anthropologist, and when people are preliterate, meaning there is no writing associated with their language, we use something called the Internal Phonetic Alphabet. This is an agreed upon system of symbols (which is what all languages are) to express individual phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest part of a language. Dr. Everett used the IPA to document there language. Once it come time to do subtitles, you look how those phonemes are expressed in the language you are translateing it too
So another thing that isn't mentioned in descriptions of the language - the constant interrupting back and fourth, repeating a word two or three times, then the sentence goes on a bit, and stops with some interruptions. I do not know if this is a tic by Everett, or a way that he learned to understand meanings, but if it actually is a feature of the Piraha themselves then it may be that some of the huge semantic ambiguities introduced by their grammar are resolved periodically. I've noticed this is done in Chinese - the other person will repeat a sentence or phrase in a conversation as a way to keep the meaning clear between two speakers. Chinese is also a grammatically simple language, so that may be one of the reasons for this pattern.
I have been to the Amazon, and they all are not naked and living in longhouses together hunting anaconda for dinner. Manaus is a city of 2 million people, with a European-style opera house. I have also worked with the Living Tongues Institute and Enduring Voices with National Geographic, and pressure is very much placed on Russia, to preserve their indigenous Siberian languages. So this is a top priority for the United Nations and UNESCO.
@ericNA82 From the transcript: 00:01:43 Kaioá to Dan Tíi hi aíbásigíi kobaisoogabagaí. Hi hóihi. Hi hóihiái gáihi. {he holds up two fingers though he shouldn't if Piraha don't know how to count and hói means one {Again, notice that even though he holds up two fingers, he clearly doesn't mean two, since he is referring to the entire population of the Pirahã (!). He is here talking about his desire to see a lot of people together, which is something the Pirahãs never see in the village.}
If I understand him correctly, and please note that I may be mistaken, he is discussing the results of last night's episode of "Dancing With The Stars."
I would love to learn that language, but it took Everett 30 years... maybe later... They are truly amazing people. They live now; there is now what happened and what will happen. They don't need to fret on the future or past, they are happy now. They are happen and satisfied with their lives, unlike most today. Whether they believe in a God or not doesn't matter. Religion is unnecessary in their lives because they accept themselves and their world. Simple. Simply amazing.
It's weird seeing a video of a person from my state speaking a language I don't know a single word. And this video being with English title for foreigners who are also searching about it!
If you're interested, read the book "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes," about dan everetts time in the jungle. I just finished it and it was fantastic. Very entertaining, didn't want to put it down.
It's less of an alphabet and more of a sound inventory, as Piraha has no official writing system. However, Piraha does have a strange system, as it has 9 phonemes for men and 8 for women, a system seen no where else in the world
Amazing video of an amazingly rare language, I find it most interesting that his lips and teeth barely move at all when speaking. Its like he is using only the rear part of his mouth to essentially hum the words.
The reason it sounds repetitive is because it has the least amount of phonemes in any known language. Three vowels (A, I and O) and six consonants (G, H, S, T, P and B). There's also an extra consonant only for men that sounds like K
You can! If you haven't seen or heard about it already, the Smithsonian channel made a documentary that discusses the language, culture, Daniel Everett, and all the controversy this language caused. It's super good! It's titled: The Grammar of Happiness.
Watching this video was one of the moments in my life I mostly felt proud of bring Brazilan. Rarely people speak about those Native Indians' lamguages that barely people know that they still exist.
Concordo com o seu comentário. Brasil é um país de muita cultura e asombrosas tradições. Eu espero que meu português é suficientemente bom; o tenho estudado uns seis ou sete meses. Parabéns desde México, irmão!
"Kauan" -- "Greetings" in Piraha. What makes this language so unique is that it is not related to any other language in world. That is the reason why Brazil must make every effort to preserve its indigenous languages. Both Peru and Paraguay have made indigenous languages their second official languages, after Spanish. Peru also passed a law requiring it to have all government documents in the countries 80 indigenous languages. Brazil should follow suit, not everybody speaks Portuguese.
@jhwheeler7 One of the reasons we need to try and conserve these regional and very rare languages because they dissapear by assimilation including cultural concepts with them.
no, they had asked Dr. Everett to teach them because they were worried they were being scammed during trading. when he attempted to teach them though he learned that since they really only have 3 ways to describe the quantity of something they weren't understanding how to count things. they really only had words for one, some, and some more. for colors they only have descriptive words so instead of having a word for "red" they would say something describing the color for example, "like blood". since they had never been exposed to think of the quantity or color of something in specific numbers or colors they found it difficult to understand how to think using numbers or colors. they had eventually given up and never learned.
+Das Rite I believe the female version of the language actually has only 7 phonemes, while the male version has a bit more. That's why the words are so long.
I think Everett actually writes the language using 11 letters (a, i, o, b, p, t, k, x, h, s, g). But he also claims /k/ isn't a full-on phoneme in Pirahã, rather an allophone for /hi/ in some contexts.
I think I vaguely remember from reading Everett's grammar years ago that -i and -í are some very frequent endings. I think one of them (or both) is the declarative ending on verbs, or something like that. So most verbs are just bound to end in them. And I also think it's a meaningless vowel that makes words complete that would otherwise end in a consonant, so if "xoab" is actually the root word for whatever thing, in speech it would become "xoabi" (or something) unless another ending is added.
It likely sounds the same, if I have gathered anything from my research into Pirahã, because they LACK recursive grammar. Meaning, he is saying what he can say, knowing how he knows he can say it, in the only way he CAN say it. It language IS that of anything we could presume of animals.
@@favelachan Humans lived in caves thousands and thousands of years ago; the chance of it being that conservative is almost zero. Also, they don't even live in caves, so that's a bad comparison.
@@favelachan This is nowhere near what the first language was like this language can't be older than 10.000 years since its spoken in south America there where no humans in south America until the end of the ice age the first language is at least 200.000 years old but it could be even older if early human species had a language.
@R B J I'm talking about literal caves your idiot, the kind of caves humans lived thousand years ago. It's not complex, the only complex thing in this discussion is your level of idiocy. Subhuman.
@DanielDouch Hm.. so it doesn't. Dr Everett's ISU page doesn't seem to exist anymore, probably because he recently moved jobs and universities. I can't find the transcription anywhere else at the moment, either, and he doesn't atm have a personal webpage at Bentley like he did at Illinois State.
I changed the title from "with subtitles" to "with transcription" because the word "subtitles" very sensibly made a lot of people think there would be a translation in English or some other language they understand.
K
K
Idiots are so used to translations they forgot(or never knew at all) what subtitles means
@VisualPlugin the Multilingual Programmer I don't think the language has a script of its own, so would it really be considered transliteration to write the language in latin characters?
@@bloodandguts5931 I think so. Sabbath is a transliteration, not a translation, and so is baptism.
This language would be killer in Scrabble.
Naw. They'd have to make a special edition with more Xs. Then all the Xs would be worth the same as Es are in the English version.
lol
Jordy Clements. No it wouldn't. It has very very very little sounds
lol you killed me :D
problem is they've only got 11 letters
He has kind eyes
No he has the manic eyes of someone who has killed another person. You been sheltered much?
@@TheAdekrijger why so rude? He just a Pirahã speaker smfh
@@TheAdekrijger tf is wrong with you? what ngo ngo said. no reason to be so rude.
@@TheAdekrijger
🙄
Ikr he looks so happy
0001C6.MP4
00:00:17 Ti baabihia saagoai ‘Am I getting ill?’ (joking comment made by Kaiowa to himself as he waits)
00:00:25
Dan to Kaiowa: Baihiigi ‘(taping) goes slowly’
Kaiowa to Dan: Xai baihiigi. Xaio. ‘Yeah. Slowly. That’s right.’
00:00:30
Kaiowa to himself: Xitaibigaisi kapiigakagakaa ‘Sarah writes a lot’
00:00:43
Dan to kaiowa
Xai xigiaoaxai gixai xahoaati topagahai. Xai xaoi xaibai xoikapioxiai kobaisogabagai hiaitiihi xigiaoaxai?
Yeah, is it OK for you to speak to the recorder? There are many foreigners in other jungles who want to see the Pirahas. Is that OK?
Kaiowa to Dan: Xigiai ‘OK’
00:01:01
Kaiowa to Dan: Xai xigiai kapiiga hiahoai. ‘OK I will talk to the paper/image’
00:01:04
Xoogiai higogaisai. Xaooi xaaibai xaitii. Xaibaisi? ‘Dan, what did you say? There are foreigners (who want to see ) the Pirahas? Many?’
00:01:07
Dan to Kaiowa
Xaoi xaoxaaga xoi kapioxio. Higaisai kobaisoogabagai hiaitiihi. Xai saaibasi kobaisai.
‘There are foreigners in another jungle. They say we want to see the Pirahas. Thus into the camera they look.’ Xai gixai xaahoaiso. Xigihai xoi kapioxiai. Xigioawaxai? Thus when you finish speaking, I will take it to another jungle (for them to see). OK?’
00:01:20
Kaiowa to Dan: Xigiai ‘OK’
00:01:23
Kaiowa to Dan Xai xigiai xaaga. Tigaisai. Xigiaixaaga. Xaoii xoai? ‘Well, OK then. I speak. OK then. Foreigners in the (other) jungle?’ Kaiowa then says ‘OK. I want to see a lot of foreigners.’
00:01:43
Kaiowa to Dan
Tii hiaibasigi kobaisoogabagai. Hi hoihi. Hi hoihiai gaihi. (he holds up two fingers)
‘I a whole lot want to see. There is a small (amount here). There is a small amount here. (notice that even though he holds up two fingers, he clearly doesn’t mean two, since he is referring to the entire population of the Piraha. He is here talking about his desire to see a lot of people together, which is something the Pirahas never see in the village.)
00:01:53
Paoxai hiobaisogabagai. Hiaibasigi. Xai hiaibasigi hiobasoogabagai. Hiaibasigi. Hiobaisoogabai. Gai. Xooopai hiobasoogabai. Hiaibasigi.
‘Paoxai wants to see. A whole lot (of people). Thus a whole lot he wants to see. A really whole lot. He wants to see. Here. Xooopai he wants to see. A whole lot (of foreigners).’
00:02:09
Xai piiaikooi. Boitohoi xigopihiabikoi. Xai boitohoi kahapihiabaa. Xao hiobasoogabai hiaibasigii. hiaibasigii.
Yes. The water is shallow. The boat cannot go up there. Thus the boat will not go. The foreigners want to see a lot. A lot.
Hi hoihiai gai. Xai hi hoihiai gai. Pasabii (Passar Bem - the name in Portuguese of the beach we are interviewing him at.)
There are only a few here. (literally, there is one here, if hoi (falling tone) meant one.)
Xaooi hi xaokasabii pasabii, gai.
‘Foreigners he calls this place Passar Bem.’
Xai hoagahiai hiatii hi xaaibaai. Xai xaaibai.
‘Thus at Hoagahiai (Passar Bem) there are many Pirahas. Thus a lot.’
Hoagahia xiga xai. Xai hoagahia xiga xaaibaai. Hoagahia xai gixai soxoa.
‘At Hoagahiai. Thus at Hoagahiai there are many. You already know Hoagahia.’
Xai ti xabaxai hi ahoai topaaga. Xai gai. Tii.
‘Thus I alone speak to the recorder. Thus here. Me.’
Kabaha. xaibahiabaha gai. Tii xabaati. Xioitabii gai.
‘There is nothing. Not many here. I stay. Xioitabii (his wife) here.’
Bahaio piaii. Xai hoaowii. Tiiowi piaii. Xai Tiiowi saiu ai morar, goo. Xabaxai. Kaahai kabaha xaibasi. Hoii. (one - but here he holds up TWO fingers!) Hoihi.
‘Bahaio (his child) also. Thus Hoaowii (shotgun; name of another of his children). Thus Shit (the name of another of his children) went to live there (goo is also used as a question word.)
Xai Palhal hoii. Piaii. Agora, gaihi. Ti piaii. Hoihi. Hoihi. Kabaha. Xaibahiaba.
‘Thus (at the place called) Palhal there are few. Now, here. I also. Few. Few. None. Not many.’
Agora hoagahiai xaaibaai hiaitiihi. Xai hiaitiihi hiaaibaai hiaitiihi. Hoagahiai xiga. Xai gaihi.
‘Now at Hoagahiai (there are) many Piraha. Thus Piraha are many Piraha. Hoagahiai at. Thus here.’
Hoihiigiai hi. Hoihiigiai hi. Xaooi xaokasabii flechal. Xai hiaitiihi xaaibaai piaii.
‘Hoigiigiai (lit: at the place of arrows or arrow shaft material) here. Hoihiigiai here. Foreigners call this Flechal (at the place of arrows or arrow shaft material).(Names in Portuguese and Piraha match up in this case!)
Hoihiigiai. Hoigiigiai piaii. Hiaaibaai. Xai hiaitiihi, xoi hiaokasai hoihiigiai. Xai, flechal. Xai xaoi xao hiaokasabii. Xai hiaitiihi hiaokasabii hoihiigiai. Hoihiigiai (in answer to me).
‘Hoigiigiai. Hoigiigiai also. Many. Thus Piraha, jungle (‘place’) calls Hoihiigiai. Thus, Flechal. Thus foreigners foreigner (prefix) he calls it. Thus the Pirahas call it Hoihiigiai. Hoihiigiai.’
Gaihi. Hoagaihiaihi hiaitiihi. Mais para ca. Hoagaihiaihi. Xaaibaai hiaitiihi, hoagaihiai. Hoagaihiai.
‘Here. At Hoagaihiaii (there are Piraha). More towards here. Hoagaihiaihi. There are many Pirahas at Hoagaihiaihi. (At) Hoagaihiaihi.’
Xai gixai saabi (sabe) hoagaihiai.
‘Thus you (already) know Hoagaihiai.’
00:03:57
Kaiowa continues
Xai tigaisai.
‘Thus I say.’
Hiahoai topaagahai agora.
‘I speak to the recorder now.’
Gai Kabagai xabaxaigio. Xai xabaxaigio Kabagai.
‘Here Kabagai (Piraha woman) lives alone (not really - her husband lives with her). Thus alone Kabagai.’
Hiaitii kaba. Kapioxiai.
‘There are no Pirahas. No others.’ (This is not literally true, since her husband is always with her.)
Xai quase gai. Gai passa bem xibagai.
‘Thus almost here. Here at Passar Bem, at the side of.’
Xaibai hiai koihi. Quase xai muito hiai. Xai xaibai hioihiai xai hi. Baagi.
‘Many there are few’ Almost there are a lot. Thus many at this jungle thus here. Many.’
Baagiso xaaga gai. (holds up five fingers). Baagiso.
‘Many are here. Many.’
00:04:19
Xai ti piai hoihio (one - obviously not literally! He is talking about his entire family).
‘Thus I also am one.’ (My family has only a few people is what this actually means.)
Xai Tiapaobii piaii. Hoi (one/small amount). Xaaibahiaba.
‘Thus Bernardo also. One. Not many.’ (Bernardo’s family is also small. So there are not many where he lives either.)
Xai Tiapaobii xaaibahiaba. Gaihi. Kabai.
‘Thus Bernardo (where he lives) there aren’t many. Here. No one/nothing’
Hoagaihiai. Xaaibai Hiaitiihi. Xai hoagaihiai xaaibai.
‘At Hoagaihiai. There are many Piraha. Thus at Hoagaihiai there are many.’
Gai hoihigiai piaii. Xaaibaai. Hiaitii.
‘Here at Flechal also. There are many. Pirahas.’
Coata (Brazilian name) piaii. Xaaibaai hiatii. Xaaibaai tiobahai. Xai xiga. Xaaibaai Coata.
‘At Coata also. There are many Pirahas. Many children. Thus there.’
Xai. Paagagisai, nome xaooi. Gixai soxoa conhece xai. Xai Coata, mais para ca Coata. Xai Coata xaaibaai.
‘Thus. Paagagisai (what we call the foreign name, Coata) You already know it. Thus Coata, more towards here. Coata. Thus at Coata many.’
00:04:56
Dan to Kaiowa
Xai ti xahoai xaooi. ‘Ok. I am going to talk to the foreigner (Randall).’
Kaiowa to Dan
Xigiai. ‘OK’
Does Xigiai come from "OK" or is it just a coincidence?
@@MarcHarder I don't understand your question,if you mean that the words etymology comes from the English word ok/okay no, it's not derived from it
Did you find the translation somewhere or are you a linguist that knows Pirahã?
👍🏼
@@MapsCharts This translation is from Dan Everett's website, here: daneverettbooks.com/translation-for-an-interesting-piraha-text/
Fascinating. He has a permanent grin on his face - he must be a happy man.
I think one would generally be happy when things not immediately in your surroundings doesn't exist.
We lost something when we came out of the trees
Some fools decided 8 years ago to give them power and an idiot box. Give it two generations for them to become depressed alcoholics relying on govt hand outs.
Rave Runner, Everett and others who have spent time with the tribe say the happiness quotient is off the charts.
It's worth reading Everett's book about them.
something that lends a lot to the unique sound of this language is the fact that it only has three vowel sounds, "A," "I," and "O," which can all be pronounced in a variety of different ways, some of which carry meaning. Most of the meaning in this language, as far as linguists can tell, is carried in the rhythm and tone with which a phrase is said - for this reason, Pirahã speakers can hum or whistle entire sentences with basically no loss of information.
This language forbid to not smile. It's beautiful.
Their tribe numbers less than 400 people and they're noted for their happiness. Of all the things on Earth to be endangered.
Reading "Don't sleep, there are snakes" at the moment, and it's so good to get to hear the language spoken here. Thank you so much for sharing this, and thank you to the Piraha man for sharing his language with us like this.
Take it with a grain of salt, at least the linguistic stuff; Everett has been called out on a lot of it, there are many linguistic errors in his work. Overall it's a good book though, but more so from the sociocultural perspective rather than the linguistic.
@@hoon_sol Tbh, the expanse of this linguistic argument is beyond my ken. Here for the stories. To that end, I'm enthralled by the lightness in this man's expression and would love to know his take on the interview process, all of the equipment, etc.
Everett wrote about the happiness of this tribe - both collectively and individually. Is it connected to their language? I've no idea how such things can be measured or studied. Cheers to those who make stabs at translating what matters.
@@mortalclown3812:
Extremely unlikely. The vast majority of linguistic evidence supports universal grammar, and that all people ultimately have the same internal linguistic structures.
My guess is that them being so happy is a combination of living in the natural human habitat (the tropical equatorial rainforest, where we evolved for tens of millions of years) and a culture of peace and cooperation without any social hierarchy at all.
I'm reading it right now as well. To me it seems that there's a confusion between tones and stresses, as if they are the same thing, and I thought that this is not the case. But I'm no linguist so...
as a Brazilian I could identify some words he speaks in Portuguese....I just hope these words dont replace the words in his mother native tongue.
"Agora", "Mais para cá", fiquei surpreso quando vi.
One would assume that some words were borrowed by Portuguese speakers from Pirahã, not the other way around. But, I could be wrong.
Brisa Salvas Fear not; last I read, very few people in the tribe speak Portuguese, and they are adamant not oto change their language
Piraha had a lot of words that it just didn't have. With the rising prevalence of Portuguese schools, Portuguese is moving into the language. For example, Piraha had no words for specific numbers... now they count in Portuguese.
I wouldn't be surprised if Portuguese eventually completely overtakes Piraha.
These words came from portuguese, not pirahã
Thank god for those subtitles. This dude's accent is so thick I was only getting about 30pc.
Do you speak it? :0
@@edoardo69yearsago88 there is a book in Portugese to learn
how's the book called?
Such a marvelous language! The man is so beautiful, too!
Agree. He's absolutely radiant.
I wish I could speak Piraha language, understand their frame of mind, their feeling on life and world.
just get very drunk and there, that's how they percieve the world. Well not exactly.. but you have to think of not being able to count/store the idea of a quantity in mind, and of only being able to get a very vague idea of any abstract thought ( not only the language makes it hard to do so, but they seem to have a cultural prejudice against talking about an abstract thought outside of the here and now ). Without appropriate language, our brain cannot hold on to thoughts, a little like in memento
@@tacchinotacchi lol.
@@tacchinotacchi We create language according to our needs. If they feel need to accounting things, they will develop or borrow a numeral system.
I'm sure they will, but we don't know how many generations it could take. We don't know how long it took the west to come up with numbers either.
@@tacchinotacchi We developed numbers when we needed them. For example, "million" is Latin for "grand thousand", because only when Romans build their empire that they needed a word for millions. "Billion" is "million" but with Greek prefix "bi-" meaning two.
こんな優しい顔を見たことがない
such a unique sound, i would love to hear poetry in this language
@@Grave_of_flower147 Wait there’s no way you actually speak it. I would love to learn this language though tbh, especially because of the way you could hum it and it sounds like music
I just finished reading Dr. Everett's book Don't Sleep There Are Snakes not 5 minutes ago, it was very interesting. And I wanted to say thank you for posting this video, I think its amazing to be able to to hear the language.
+Lira Awesome book, it was a great read for me.
what is the biggest thing you learned from the book as a whole
Languages are a beautiful mirror into the mind and culture of peoples. Learning languages is more mind-expanding than any drugs (might be more hard work, though...)
❤❤❤
What a fascinating language. I hope it survives, along with its speakers and culture.
Xai xigiaoaxaixi gixai xahoaati topogahai. Xai xaooi xaaibai xoikapioxiai kobaisogabagai hiaitiihi xigiaoaxai?
At the end of these sentences, Everett sounds like he's out of breath.
hes trying to match the speech patterns of some piraha speakers
Piraha scarely in fact perfectly sounds like something when we and my Hellenic brothers did in the past pseudo-imitating foreign langauges without putting any effort ending with a long string of mindless vowels. We are Hellenes, we imitated "Arabic" in days long past this way along with not imitating language at all. It was a form of relaxation speaking vowel-drunk gibberish making humour at home and it was soothing. Everett must relax and stop deepening his voice and his vowels. Make yourself sound like a dunk wimp is my advice for speaking Piraha.
After having spent years living with them and learning to speak it, I'm sure your advice is just what he needs to finally nail it down.
Somente no Brasil são mais de 200 povo indígenas falando mais de 180 línguas. E poucos brasileiros sabem disso.
Sim, é que a lengua dos pirahãs é extremadamente unica, os que falam nesse idioma são muito pocos.
Sim, é que a lengua dos pirahãs é extremadamente unica, os que falam nesse idioma são muito pocos.
A língua deles é isolada, ou seja, não é relatada a nenhuma outra língua(pelo menos que sabemos) do continente.
Descendem dos Mura?
More than 200? You make that sound grander than it is, that is tragic. Barely ONLY 200?? I hope you meant 200k
I noticed that immediately as well -- it's almost like the language is designed so one never has to break their smile to speak it. I would give up almost anything to go live with these people, the only thing preventing it is that I couldn't leave my loved ones.
I think you might be shattered if you're making your decision based on this 5 minute video.
11 years ago... Do you still think you could live trying to find your food the whole day long, day after day, doing nothing else?
Dr Everette is speaking to him. Fascinating book "Dont Sleep, there Are Snakes" Just amazing, on where language comes from and how we are influenced so much by our culture.
It is interesting to see the integration of Portuguese words in his speech!
I find the Portuguese language fascinating, too: sometimes I think I even hear German in it.
So interesting to hear a language completely different from the ones I'm familiar with; it's like stepping into another world with so much to see.
Really interesting to hear. I first encountered Piraha on a CD of songs from Brazilian native tribes something like 20 years ago. Then just recently I was reading Daniel Everett's recent book about language where he talks about his experiences with the Piraha, and the link to some MP3s he provided in the book didn't work, so I just went looking on TH-cam.
Can you find the song?
@@meusisto Oh, after 6 years (given the date of my original comment) I have no idea what I was looking for anymore, or even what that original CD was...
someone give him a hug
and give him typhoid or something yay
Master Yoda yes, a very happy face
Holy crap! It would take SO MUCH immersion to be able to tell apart them vowels. O.O I mean, same vowels, different lengths... different meanings... I want to know what he sayyysss!!
I am currently listening to Everett's book on Audible. It is very interesting.
During his speech he said few words in Portuguese, such as "agora" "mais pra ca" and on.. You will realize when you see something diferent than "Xaihaiyai Ha hikotobai"
Yep, at first I thought they were completely reluctant to have loanwords, but it turns out that with outside communication, they eventually adopted some.
This comment thread: abandon all hope ye who enter here. This is an abyss of linguistic relativism and astonishing racism and stupidity. For the love of god, just turn back, it's not worth it.
thanks for the warning my friend, I went no further in.
Roflcopter4b Not a fan of linguistic relativism? Maybe the speaker is just messing with us to spite Chomsky.
Roflcopter4b Thanks, man.
Karl Wytoldus Janis de Voorsbergh Oy vey!
Holy Sapir-Whorf, Batman!
Such a beautiful and gentle looking people. What a travesty that has happened and is happening in their land. Huge shame to think about the rich cultures and diversity that land once had in abundance prior to the invasion and what is left now. Hope their language and culture does what many others haven't and that is survive and thrive in what they call the 'new world'.
Not really beautiful alot of slavery and human sacrifice in the more developed areas like in the Inca and Aztec empires and alot of people living in huts speaking gibberish languages unable to count and fighting tribal wars with eachother constantly in the less developed areas. The fact they are powerless and weak victims right now makes them seem docile and nice but they are as capable of horrific behaviour as any other kind and gentle looking group of humans.
@@TheAdekrijger at least they got Catholicism now.
@@mojeo522 ye
wait wait are you a Swede?
Because of all the umlauts.
Swedes hate Catholics.
But if you're a Swede and like Catholics, you're a better Swede.
People need to stop talking about modern man as though we are alien -- foreign to Earth and a blight on the planet.
We are also part of Earth's biodiversity.
@@laurasalo6160 ye
Here because reading "Don't Sleep, There are Snakes."
It's so wild to read how isolated the Piraha language was when he started in the late 70's, and now I can hop on TH-cam and find it in a few clicks!
He never stopped smiling.
NEVER 😳.
It sounds like he is literally saying the same thing over and over
that is because pirahã hasn't all the vowels you find in english language.
Could it also be because piraha lacks recursion? That might mean certain words would need to be repeated.
It's also a tonal language which means several words that sound the same to a speaker of a non-tonal language like English are actually distinct words with very different meanings.
+Nicholas Markovich you mean like mandarin?
Well, the repetition seems mostly because it has actually very little sounds in general, even taking tone into consideration.
We, the people in the other jungle, greet the Piraha and wish them well.
such beautiful people and beautiful language
Fun Fact: 0:41 to 0:46 is sampled on the intro cut of the new Aminé record!
These people are so beautiful while smiling :)♥ AVATAR KRSHNA ♥♥♥
Is he smiling from happiness, or is it because he is nervous? I too feel nervous when I am interviewed on camera. Smiling is a universal form of communication, and I believe it is a way of saying "Please be kind to me, please have mercy on me"... that kind of thing.
Robert Sullivan
Yes, and there's probably an element of being astonished by the technological differences on display. Fascination and amazement may not seem like they'd be big for us modernfolk, but the technological leap here would be huge.
As a brazilian Portuguese speaker I could understand about 0,000001% of what they said 😂😂, only the portuguese words and expressions:
2:55 = Saiu (went out) / Morar (reside)
3:06, 3:12 & 3:59 = Agora (now)
3:23 & 3:35 = Flechal (a place in the Amazon forest)
3:47 & 4:50 = Mais pra cá (nearby)
4:07 = Passa bem (to feel good)
4:10 = Quase / Muito (almost / very)
4:46 = Nome (name)
4:48 = Conhece (to know someone or something).
Daniel Everett tried so hard to translate this lenguage, but still like a challenge.
There is a translation in the comment section.
I’m an anthropologist, and when people are preliterate, meaning there is no writing associated with their language, we use something called the Internal Phonetic Alphabet. This is an agreed upon system of symbols (which is what all languages are) to express individual phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest part of a language. Dr. Everett used the IPA to document there language. Once it come time to do subtitles, you look how those phonemes are expressed in the language you are translateing it too
it’s International not internal
Can you please analyze the manner in which he pronounces vowels and consonants according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
He did not use the IPA!? He used his own-developed romanisation. The glottal stop he romanises with while the IPA uses ʔ et cetera et cetera
The word that I would use to describe this man is 'genuine.' Someone with absolutely nothing to hide.
his smile is so beautiful
Damn, Everett sounds pretty fluent at it. Props to him.
For all you know he could sound like Jacky Chan speaking english
@@lmc4355 Jackie.
@@mortalclown3812 Kong-Sang
So another thing that isn't mentioned in descriptions of the language - the constant interrupting back and fourth, repeating a word two or three times, then the sentence goes on a bit, and stops with some interruptions. I do not know if this is a tic by Everett, or a way that he learned to understand meanings, but if it actually is a feature of the Piraha themselves then it may be that some of the huge semantic ambiguities introduced by their grammar are resolved periodically. I've noticed this is done in Chinese - the other person will repeat a sentence or phrase in a conversation as a way to keep the meaning clear between two speakers. Chinese is also a grammatically simple language, so that may be one of the reasons for this pattern.
The most difficult language of the world, thanks for uploading
i read that they can sing, whistle, and hum their language. it would be very interesting to hear that!
he looks so happy :')) i love it
This is beautiful, thank you. 😊
I have been to the Amazon, and they all are not naked and living in longhouses together hunting anaconda for dinner. Manaus is a city of 2 million people, with a European-style opera house. I have also worked with the Living Tongues Institute and Enduring Voices with National Geographic, and pressure is very much placed on Russia, to preserve their indigenous Siberian languages. So this is a top priority for the United Nations and UNESCO.
who the hell said that they are?
Hi hi bye hi hi guy sai guy hi hi hi
Matthew Ye 😂😂😂🤦
Hahahahaha
incredible incredible language, video, and work by linguists
Definitely excellent .I wis I could speak this Native language greetings from Turkey.
@ericNA82 From the transcript:
00:01:43
Kaioá to Dan
Tíi hi aíbásigíi kobaisoogabagaí. Hi hóihi. Hi hóihiái gáihi. {he holds up two fingers
though he shouldn't if Piraha don't know how to count and hói means one {Again, notice that even though he holds up two fingers, he clearly doesn't mean two,
since he is referring to the entire population of the Pirahã (!). He is here talking about his
desire to see a lot of people together, which is something the Pirahãs never see in the
village.}
How did you got that transcription?
Where is the transcription from?
@@meusisto Specifically at this link
web.archive.org/web/20100414182800/llc.illinoisstate.edu/dlevere/docs/Sept29AMFX3.pdf
Fascinating language. Pronunciation and lexical wise I get some Australasian languages vibes
Subtitles don't help much!
It really does sound like he's crying when he talks.
He's just speaking a language like we are. :)
@@anawkwardsweetpotato4728 In the book Everett says local Brazilians refer to Piraha as "The Crying Language".
Most useful subtitle I have ever seen. THANK YOU SO MUCH...
You can read the English translation for the subtitles in the comment section.
If I understand him correctly, and please note that I may be mistaken, he is discussing the results of last night's episode of "Dancing With The Stars."
Thank god there were subtitles....🤷♂️
I would love to learn that language, but it took Everett 30 years... maybe later...
They are truly amazing people. They live now; there is now what happened and what will happen. They don't need to fret on the future or past, they are happy now. They are happen and satisfied with their lives, unlike most today. Whether they believe in a God or not doesn't matter. Religion is unnecessary in their lives because they accept themselves and their world. Simple. Simply amazing.
Belief in God mostly effects you after you die.
Can you please analyze the manner in which he pronounces vowels and consonants according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
This language would be near impossible to lip read
It's crazy how few of the common consonants there actually are in their speech.
It's weird seeing a video of a person from my state speaking a language I don't know a single word. And this video being with English title for foreigners who are also searching about it!
If you're interested, read the book "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes," about dan everetts time in the jungle. I just finished it and it was fantastic. Very entertaining, didn't want to put it down.
who is speaking to him? Dr. Everett?
+sovietchampagne Yes.
Lots of words starting with X.
There are some words in portuguese.
influence is unavoidable.
Shortest alphabet language on earth!
Rotokas language alphabet is 12 letters and this pirahã language is claimed to have even fewer letters!
It's less of an alphabet and more of a sound inventory, as Piraha has no official writing system. However, Piraha does have a strange system, as it has 9 phonemes for men and 8 for women, a system seen no where else in the world
Can you please analyze the manner in which he pronounces vowels and consonants according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
amazing. he has no wringles apart from the laugh lines
He gave the permission to use his image for other people to see in other jungles :c)
Amazing video of an amazingly rare language, I find it most interesting that his lips and teeth barely move at all when speaking. Its like he is using only the rear part of his mouth to essentially hum the words.
The reason it sounds repetitive is because it has the least amount of phonemes in any known language. Three vowels (A, I and O) and six consonants (G, H, S, T, P and B). There's also an extra consonant only for men that sounds like K
Can you please analyze the manner in which he pronounces vowels and consonants according to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
They can express colours, they just do it by comparison. "Blood-colour". "Sky-colour".
You can! If you haven't seen or heard about it already, the Smithsonian channel made a documentary that discusses the language, culture, Daniel Everett, and all the controversy this language caused. It's super good! It's titled: The Grammar of Happiness.
ha muitas palavras portuguesas ! tipo "agora", "mais para ca", "passe bem" "quase" "saiu".
there are lots of portuguese borrowings (ex. above)
beautiful language, beautiful culture. Wish more of us had the same values as the pirahãs
Watching this video was one of the moments in my life I mostly felt proud of bring Brazilan. Rarely people speak about those Native Indians' lamguages that barely people know that they still exist.
Concordo com o seu comentário. Brasil é um país de muita cultura e asombrosas tradições. Eu espero que meu português é suficientemente bom; o tenho estudado uns seis ou sete meses. Parabéns desde México, irmão!
Sensacional. 🙂🇧🇷
"Kauan" -- "Greetings" in Piraha. What makes this language so unique is that it is not related to any other language in world. That is the reason why Brazil must make every effort to preserve its indigenous languages. Both Peru and Paraguay have made indigenous languages their second official languages, after Spanish. Peru also passed a law requiring it to have all government documents in the countries 80 indigenous languages. Brazil should follow suit, not everybody speaks Portuguese.
it would be difficult to do it in piraha considering there are no future or past tenses. there is also no alphabet.
That would be difficult, the % of native speakers of any native language is way lower in Brazil than in neighboring countries
he is saying: you guys keep living in the past or future while I enjoy the present moment thanks to my language XD
looks like someone just figured out how to use the zoom feature on the camera
This is one of the most difficult language I have ever heard and read
I love this language !
@jhwheeler7
One of the reasons we need to try and conserve these regional and very rare languages because they dissapear by assimilation including cultural concepts with them.
Truly good language. Since they've no words for numbers & colors they can say them in Portuguese. Yes?
According to Everett, when he tried to teach them numbers and colours they couldn't grasp it
no, they had asked Dr. Everett to teach them because they were worried they were being scammed during trading. when he attempted to teach them though he learned that since they really only have 3 ways to describe the quantity of something they weren't understanding how to count things. they really only had words for one, some, and some more. for colors they only have descriptive words so instead of having a word for "red" they would say something describing the color for example, "like blood". since they had never been exposed to think of the quantity or color of something in specific numbers or colors they found it difficult to understand how to think using numbers or colors. they had eventually given up and never learned.
@pyreneeamour Read the book Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes. You'll learn about that guy. Awesome book!
It sounds like they only have like 6 letters.
The language has been claimed to have as few as 10 phonemes.
+Das Rite I believe the female version of the language actually has only 7 phonemes, while the male version has a bit more. That's why the words are so long.
When you are shouting through the jungle, having few readily recognizable phonemes and bigger words are useful to avoid confusion.
I think Everett actually writes the language using 11 letters (a, i, o, b, p, t, k, x, h, s, g). But he also claims /k/ isn't a full-on phoneme in Pirahã, rather an allophone for /hi/ in some contexts.
thanks, i REALLY enjoyed that! I'm sorry that those people will lose their culture and language now, but i guess you can't preserve them under glass.
I wonder if this is more in line with how people sounded 10,000 years ago.
His eyes show no malice. He has no malice in his soul.
This is a beautiful language
It sounds like a dialect from Okinawa (Japan) Islands. O som se parece com um dos dialetos de Okinawa (Japão).
Daniel Everett
these are captions, not subtitles ;) anyone know what they're saying? a lot of the words juts seem repeated and sentences, too.
It seems to me like all nouns end with an "i". Maybe that's the reason.
I think I vaguely remember from reading Everett's grammar years ago that -i and -í are some very frequent endings. I think one of them (or both) is the declarative ending on verbs, or something like that. So most verbs are just bound to end in them. And I also think it's a meaningless vowel that makes words complete that would otherwise end in a consonant, so if "xoab" is actually the root word for whatever thing, in speech it would become "xoabi" (or something) unless another ending is added.
It likely sounds the same, if I have gathered anything from my research into Pirahã, because they LACK recursive grammar. Meaning, he is saying what he can say, knowing how he knows he can say it, in the only way he CAN say it. It language IS that of anything we could presume of animals.
There is a lot of repetition in their speech. That’s how they talk
@@dv82lecm62
Pirahã does not lack recursion.
If only Piraha became lingua franca of the world
we wouldn't be able to count dude.
We would still be living in caves.
Their language is extremely archaic, maybe it sounds like what the first humans spoke.
@@favelachan Humans lived in caves thousands and thousands of years ago; the chance of it being that conservative is almost zero. Also, they don't even live in caves, so that's a bad comparison.
@@favelachan This is nowhere near what the first language was like this language can't be older than 10.000 years since its spoken in south America there where no humans in south America until the end of the ice age the first language is at least 200.000 years old but it could be even older if early human species had a language.
@R B J I'm talking about literal caves your idiot, the kind of caves humans lived thousand years ago.
It's not complex, the only complex thing in this discussion is your level of idiocy.
Subhuman.
So beautiful.
Just wow.... the eyes are full of life and joy! The language is to my ears a little bit like a mix of japanese and english...
Some of the sounds are closer to an Austronesian language, like Tagalog....to my ear at least...
When somebody as a Pirahã-like man comes with a film camera to observe "civilized" ppl, gets a middle finger showed, I saw it really happens.
The thing that he wears a Ferrari T-Shirt kills me
@DanielDouch Hm.. so it doesn't. Dr Everett's ISU page doesn't seem to exist anymore, probably because he recently moved jobs and universities. I can't find the transcription anywhere else at the moment, either, and he doesn't atm have a personal webpage at Bentley like he did at Illinois State.