Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages.

Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language.

But in due course it became evident that not only a physical situation qua physics, but the meaning of that situation to people, was sometimes a factor, through the behavior of people, in the start of a fire.

We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds through our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.

A change in language can transform our appreciation of the cosmos.

Most metaphysical words in Hopi are verbs, not nouns as in European languages.