HELEMUTHODOPILATAHA

Wild Word Friday!

Yes, really, HELEMUTHODOPILATAHA is a word. I think we might agree that it is the wildest wild word we’ve yet featured on our Wild Word Fridays.

HELEMUTHODOPILATAHA is one way you would say the number seven if you were speaking in the language of the Wilo people who live in the Amazon basin. Now after a pause for gratitude for our own (easier!) languages, let’s take this word apart.

Like many Native peoples of North and South America, the Wilo people use the words for their fingers and toes when they are counting. The Wilo word for one is “the thumb”; for two, “the index finger”; for three, “the summit finger.” The number six is “the other hand and the thumb”; seven – “the other hand and the index finger” and so forth.

To complicate matters (Like I need complications when it comes to math!) the words for numbers not only include the designated fingers but also a reference to the type of object you are counting. This is called a noun classifier. You can’t just count in the Wilo language. You have to count something. Is that something round or sharp or skinny or flat… (There are more than a dozen noun classifiers in the Wilo language.)

The Wilo noun classifier for sharp is pi. So HELEMUTHODOPILATAHA means seven sharp things, or actually the other hand and the index finger sharp things. Did you spot the noun classifier in the middle of our Wild Word?

The Wilo language has only recently been transcribed in written form. The story of the missionary transcribers  is fascinating, and, fortunately for us, now available in book form – Our Witchdoctors Are Too Weak, by Davey and Marie Jank.

I’m giving away two copies of the book by the end of next week. Just post a reply to this Wild Word Friday for a chance to win!

Q4U: Most of us are either word people or math people. A few are good at both. What about you?