"A Myriad of Tongues, A Myriad of Worlds: Unraveling Worldviews Woven into Language" A MYRIAD OF TONGUES How Languages Reveal Differences in How We Think Caleb Everett / Aya Okubo Price: ¥3,630 → ¥2,999 We distinguish between "snow" and "ice." Of course, this is because they are different things—but could it be that we perceive them as "different things" because we speak a language that distinguishes between snow and ice? Linguists began to investigate languages around the world to answer such questions. They found that various languages bear traces of how words have been shaped by the environment in which people live. For example, some people living on slopes with a height difference of 2000 meters do not have words for "left" and "right," and always indicate the position of things as "uphill" and "downhill." Some people living near the equator point to specific directions in the sky when talking about time. A certain hunting tribe has an "abstract word for smell" that was thought not to exist. And some languages in warm regions do not distinguish between "snow" and "ice." "Language cannot be understood apart from other aspects of human experience." In the past, it was thought that there were several universal features common to all languages. However, as field research on languages unrelated to Western languages progressed, that assumption is being overturned. The author says that the question we should be asking now is, "Why is language so diverse?" This book delivers insights into the possibilities of language and cognition, amidst the ongoing disappearance of minority languages. #CalebEverett #AyaOkubo #Books #Philosophy/Philosophy"