Is it true that Amerindian languages have no word for time, love, honesty, etcetera?
No. I do not know of any Amerindian language lacking words for time, love, or honesty. This statement is usually made by people who are trying to dehumanize Indians as savages incapable of abstraction, love and honesty (or sometimes by New Agers who are trying to exalt Indians as noble savages incapable of abstraction, love and honesty). Sometimes the statement is rendered technically true by playing with phrasing. The word ‘time’ is a verb in Mi’kmaq, for example, so there isn’t an exact translation for English ‘time’, even though a Mi’kmaq speaker can clearly express the same concept of time passing that an English speaker can. Q: But don’t Indians conceptualize time differently than Westerners? A: Well, yes and no. Cherokee have a different time concept from Mayans, and Germans from Greeks. But we all have words for time and its passage. Q: Okay, then can you give some examples of time words in Amerindian languages? A: Sure. The three languages that seem to suffer from this myth the
