书摘：印第安人的语言（《世界通史》）

【以前一直以为印第安人没有多少文化，原来他们的语言如此丰富，如此高级，真是刷新三观啊】During the ensuing millennia the American Indians did indeed develop an extraordinarily rich variety of cultures, which were adapted to one another as well 337 Americas And Australia ' as to the wide range of physical environments they encountered. Some remained at the hunting-band stage, while others developed kingdoms and empires. Their religions encompassed all known categories, including monotheism. They spoke perhaps 2000 distinct languages, some as different from one another as Chinese and English. This represents almost as much variation in speech as found in the entire Old World, where about 3000 languages are known to have existed in a.d. 1500. Nor were these languages primitive, either in vocabulary or in any other respect. Whereas Shakespeare used about 24,000 words, and the King James Bible about 7000, the Nahuatl of Mexico used 27,000 words, while the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego, considered to be one of the world's most culturally retarded peoples, possess a vocabulary of at least 30,000 words