The Pirahã people of Brazil

about what he was actually hearing while living among the Pirahã that he waited nearly three decades before publishing his findings. The debate over the Pirahã language goes right to the core of the riddle regarding how Homo sapiens managed to develop vocal communication. Although bees dance, birds sing and whales even sing with syntax, human language is unique, if only for the reason that it enables humans to piece together never-before-constructed thoughts, and be infinitely imaginative — think of Shakespeare's plays or Einstein's theory of relativity. Linguistics generally focuses on what features all human languages have in common, but the Pirahã language departs from what some academics have long maintained are essential and inalienable features of all human languages. Most of all, it may be unique for not employing subordinate clauses. Instead of saying, 'When I have finished eating, I will speak to you,' the Pirahã say, 'I finish eating, I speak with you.' Equally perplexing, the Pirahã appear not to use numbers. During the time he spent with them, Everett never heard words like 'all', 'every' and 'more'. There is one word, 'hoi', that comes close to the numeral 1, but it can also mean 'small'. And they were…