Culture Influencing Language: Plurals of Hopi Kin Terms in Comparative Uto‐Aztecan Perspective

Abstract

Uto‐Aztecan languages exhibit classification of noun categories by plural marking. In Hopi and in the Tepiman languages, the marked‐plural noun category is elaborated to distinguish the flat surfaces of bodies, real and metaphorical, from elements that protrude from and intrude into these surfaces. In Tepiman, nonpatrilineal kin are seen metaphorically as such protrusions/intrusions. The metaphor of the lineage as a body occurs among the matrilineal Hopi, but the specific affective relational dynamics involving nonmatrilineal relatives require that these kin be shifted to the unmarked plural category, for an "anti‐Whorfian" effect where culture overrides language.