Language determines thought to an enormous degree. We see this in the way different languages explain identical events, objects, or concepts. People who grow up speaking languages that don't differentiate between two colors will have difficulty seeing the difference between those colors as we define them in English. Our collective societal thought patterns emerge in how we learn to talk about things. Recently, researchers have discovered a language that has no words for the concept of time. 

 

The Amondawa people of Brazil live deep in the Amazon rainforest. Their native language reflects that time functions differently among them. The research on the tribe, led by Professor Chris Sinha from the University of Portsmouth, reveals fascinating language patterns that prove the way most of the world conceives of time is not so inherent to the human mind as we'd thought. 

 

Of course, the human conception of time has changed dramatically since our inception as a species. The advent of clocks most importantly altered how we function in time. Rather than relying on the sun to tell us roughly what time of day it was, we began thinking of time in terms of numbers. We could measure its passing in discrete portions with the ticking of seconds. Now, we compartmentalize time more than ever, with rigid working hours and tightly packed schedules. 

 

But not everyone thinks of time as something that's constantly slipping away. The Amondawa people don't divide their time into units. They have no words for day, week, month, or year. There's a word for daytime and a word for nighttime, as well as separate words for the dry and rainy seasons. Beyond that, only events are spoken of. There's no conception of a "day", only a conception of what happens during the daytime. Happenings aren't measured by how long they take, but by what occurs. 

 

The language doesn't contain words to differentiate ages, either. There are no years, so there are no ages. Instead, members of the tribe change their names when they reach a certain life stage. When a newborn joins a family, an older sibling will change his or her name and pass the old name on to the baby. Names serve to distinguish babies from children, adolescents from adults. The process of physical aging is reflected in identity, not in numbers. 

 

Systems like this make sense when everyone in a given community is constantly engaged with each other. The modern world relies on time to synchronize its events from afar, but in a small, closed society, there's no real need to enumerate time. The way all people experience time isn't even consistent with the clock model. Five minutes can feel like an hour and vice versa, depending on the situation. Minutes seem shorter the older you get. The clock model is convenient for how we live our lives now, but it doesn't entirely reflect the way our brains process the passing of time. 

 

It goes to show how language adapts to reflect the needs of the people using it. People who have no need for clock time won't think of time that way. Clock time is a concept that's had centuries to evolve into its current form. It may seem remarkable that there are people who do not conceive of time in the traditional way, but I'm sure our constant counting is just as odd to them.