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Non-linear Concept of Time

The Hopi language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family of
languages which was intensively studied by the American
Benjamin Lee Whorf.
• The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (also known as the Whorfian
Hypothesis) is based on the idea that language determines
the way of thinking (Linguistic Determinism) and that the
difference in language equals the difference in thought
(Linguistic Relativity).
• According to this theory, different languages have different
metaphysics and logic and, at the same time, they offer
patterns on the basis of which we think.

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• The metaphysics underlying Indo-European
languages imposes upon the universe two
grand cosmic forms: space and time.
• Space has three dimensions
and is infinite, whereas time is one-
dimensional and it is constantly flowing, which
is the basis of a threefold division into past,
present and future.

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e The metaphysics of Hopi also has its cosmic forms
which are called manifested, or objective and
manifesting, or subjective.
• According to Whorf, the objective, or manifested
includes all that has been
accessible to senses.
• No distinction is made between present
and past and everything that Indo-Europeans see as
future is excluded from this category.

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• The subjective, on the other hand, refers to
what Indo-Europeans would call future and, in
addition, all they would call mental.
Mental, in this case, refers to what exists in
the mind, or as the Hopi would say, in the
heart, not only the heart of man, but the
heart of animals, plants, and all the things in
nature.

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• It is also interesting to mention that what Indo-
Europeans consider to be substantives (rocks, trees,
rivers, oceans), the Hopis consider to be verbs. For
example, a rock is in Western civilization perceived as
a thing, a static object and, therefore, a substantive.
However, in the Hopi language a rock is a process of
a rock (rocking). What we call 'the sky', putting 'thet
in front making it into an impersonal static, the Hopi
call something similar to 'sky-ingr which means a
living vibrating process, someone doing something.
So the sun is 'sunning' and the ocean is 'oceaning'
and a train is 'training'. But they also have different
inflections when talking about a process, like when
we say 'a raft is floating in the river' they would
instead say 'rivering upholds rafting' and when we
see a train moving over the prairie they would see
something similar to the process of the (verb of)
train moving over the prarie.

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• However, no distinction between present, past and
future exists in the Hopi language. There is no
difference between 'he runs', 'he is running', 'he ran.'
All of them are expressed by wari which means
'running occur I dare say.' An expectation is
expressed by warinki, which covers 'he will, shall,
should, would run.' But, if it is a stetement of a
general law, the form warikngwe, which means
'running occur, characteristically' is applied.