I read a fascinating book by an English journalist who'd spent much of his life in Africa. I don't recall his or the book's name unfortunately, which is a shame. Anyhow he wrote at length about the limitations of African languages. How the complete absence of certain words and tenses greatly limited the natives' ability to think OR that they were too stupid in the first place to recognize certain concepts -- like the future, or Zero -- and that's why the words/tenses were absent. When you're dealing with a 65 IQ the bar is pretty fucking low.
On YouTube you can find a presentation at an Amren conference called "African Language and the African Mind." I think that may be the man you are thinking of.
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GoddammitMrNoodle ago
I read a fascinating book by an English journalist who'd spent much of his life in Africa. I don't recall his or the book's name unfortunately, which is a shame. Anyhow he wrote at length about the limitations of African languages. How the complete absence of certain words and tenses greatly limited the natives' ability to think OR that they were too stupid in the first place to recognize certain concepts -- like the future, or Zero -- and that's why the words/tenses were absent. When you're dealing with a 65 IQ the bar is pretty fucking low.
MurkSquatch ago
On YouTube you can find a presentation at an Amren conference called "African Language and the African Mind." I think that may be the man you are thinking of.