A hoi there

Lynne Taggart writes "the Piraha people use the same word ‘hoi’ to describe ‘about one’ and ‘about two’; the only difference is a subtle alteration in inflection of pronunciation." Now Piraha mathematics is a subject of much learned debate (as well as the lack of recursiveness in their language, which is much more interesting) but surely this is like saying "the Chinese people use the same word ‘ma’ to describe a horse and a mother; the only difference is a subtle alteration in inflection of pronunciation."