women, fire & dangerous things

dyirbal is an australian aboriginal language currently spoken by about five people. it is famous among linguists chiefly for the peculiar way in which it categorises its nouns. get a hot load of this peculiar scheme:

i - animate objects and men
ii - women, dangerous things and exceptional animals
iii - everything edible that is not meat
iv - things not classified in other categories

class i contains words like: rainbows, boomerangs, and storms. in addition to women and fire, class ii contains bandicoots, water, and scorpions. edible objects that aren’t meat in class iii include cigarettes.

__

source: women, fire and dangerous things by george lakoff (1987).