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Originally Posted by Iain
What exactly is this hypothesis?
Actually, I have been reading a bit about the origins of the various Celtic languages and that is pretty interesting. The Cumbric words for the numbers are great.
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Sapir/ Whorff - better known as absolute linguistic relativity. Or rather, our languages severly restricts/ prohibits our ability to comprehend concepts outside of the ken of our language - One language may have a tense or series of words which express something which is inexpressible in another language. Inuits and snow, for instance.
The theory is a load of gack. It's utterly fascinating, but very very dangerous philosophically (except in those instances where Feyerabend uses it, because he's clever enough to do it).
I'd like to add a nod to Atari.