Nature Speaks: How Environmental Linguistics may help save the planet.
<p>Nature spoke to Marta, telling her the lunar calendar days, when to gather nuts, where to hunt, and how to survive. And Marta spoke back to nature in her Tofa language, invoking the bear to fatten itself for the kill, offering tea to the campfire god for success in hunting, whistling the wood grouse to the hunter’s snare, or serenading a reindeer to nurse her calf. Marta’s lyrical dialogue with nature — which she knew to be capable of both benevolence and severity — was a spiritual practice that kept the world in balance and allowed her Tofa people to thrive in one of the harshest climes on earth. Marta’s Tofa language uniquely expresses “I’ll catch a quail” as a single verb (<em>üšpülläär</em>) and “my two-year-old male castrated domes- ticated rideable reindeer” as a single noun (<em>charym</em>). She could recite twenty Tofa words exclusively denoting body parts of a bear (<em>irezang</em>). Marta knew the name of each bend in the river, directional words that applied only to rivers, and the names of water spirits. These language tools allowed her to wayfind in the forest, harvesting its bounty while respecting its power.</p>
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