Pirahã language

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/pirah--language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the estimated speaker population?Between 250 and 380 individuals
2. Where do the Pirahã people live?They live along the Maici River in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, which is a tributary of the huge Amazon River.
3. How many people speak Pirahã?About 250 to 380 people speak Pirahã, and most of them speak only this language.

Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis): The concept that the structure of a language affects its speakers' cognition and worldview.
Monolingualism: The ability to speak only one language, a characteristic prominent in the Pirahã community.
Assimilation: The process by which a minority group adopts the customs and language of the dominant culture.
Phonology: The study of the sound systems of languages.