The Altiplano is a fascinating place at the heart of the Andes, the most extensive area of high plateau after Tibet. It was the birthplace of several major civilizations such as Tiwanaku and the Inca Empire. In this landscape made of snow-covered peaks, lakes, deserts, salt flats, and high plains, the Aymara people speak a fascinating language full of surprises.
ReadHuman languages share few features that distinguish them from other form of animal communication. One of the most famous is recursion. In any language one can always form an arbitrarily long sentence. Always? Not quite. According to Daniel Everett, up to now the only non-native of the Pirahã Amazonian tribe who has ever understood their language, the Pirahã language does have a sentence of maximal length. Of course this statement stirred a durable controverse among linguists and prompted Noam Chomsky to criticize him as a 'charlatan'. Yet his story is interesting and, in my opinion, worth listening to.
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