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Do you believe in the sapir-wholf hypothesis?

Asked by PhiNotPi (12681points) March 31st, 2011

The sapir-wholf hypothesis is the theory that the language that you speak deeply affects the way you think. Here is an article that states some evidence for this theory. As a more dramatic example, the Piraha language, the simplest known language, has no number words. People who speak that language are extremely terrible at math, and even after several months of classes, the members of Piraha tribe could not count to ten or add 1+1. (look up Piraha if you want to know more about it)

The Sapir-Wholf hypothesis is still highly debated, due to the difficulty of testing the theory.

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