So far as we can tell, all human languages are equally
complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is,
every language appears to be well equipped as any other to say the (1)______
things their speakers want to say. (2)______
There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primitive (3)______
peoples or cultures, but that is another matter. Certainly, not all
groups of people are equally competent in nuclear physics or
psychology or the cultivation of rice. Whereas this is not the (4)______
fault of their language. The Eskimos, it is said, can speak about
snow with further more precision and subtlety than we can in (5)______
English, but this is not because the Eskimo language (one of those
sometimes mis-called 'primitive') is inherently more precise and
subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect (6)______
in English, a show of unexpected 'primitiveness'. The position is
simply and obviously that the Eskimos and the English live in similar (7)______
environments. The English language will be just as rich in terms (8)______
for different kinds of snow if the environments in which English
was habitually used made such distinctions as important. (9)______
Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo
language could be as precise and subtle on the subject of motor
manufacture or cricket if these topics formed the part of the (10)______
Eskimos' llife.