Is he or is he not sitting?

A couple weeks ago I was sitting in a village writing down a list of words in the Kaser language. It went like this:


J: How do you say, "He is sitting."
Wordlist Guy: "Karimau"
J: How do you say, "He is not sitting."
Wordlist Guy: "Karimau"
J: Oh . . . and how do you say, "He is sitting."
Wordlist Guy: "Karimau"
J (getting really worried now): Mmmhmmm . . . and . . . uhhh . . . how do you say, "He is not sitting."
Wordlist Guy: "Karimau"

It was tempting to conclude that either my ears were broken or I had discovered a culture in which it was irrelevant whether any given action was or was not taking place. The truth, however, is that the Kaser language is tonal, which means that the pitch of your voice can change the meaning of a word. So when you say, "karimau", if you say the last syllable with a low pitch it means, "He is not sitting." But if you say the last syllable with a pitch that falls from high to low it means, "He is sitting." Pretty tricky, huh?