They cannot say "the boat moves" without specifying whether the boat is an animate object or not, or whether it is to be considered animate, for rhetorical purposes, at the time of speaking.
The sounds of words have aided greatly in myth building.

Names and words which are somewhat alike in sound, _paronyms_, as they are called by grammarians, may be taken or mistaken one for the other.

Again, many myths spring from _homonymy_, that is, the sameness in sound of words with difference in signification.

Thus _coatl_, in the Aztec tongue, is a word frequently appearing in the names of divinities.

It has three entirely different meanings, to wit, a serpent, a guest and twins.