[Vision2020] Moscow July/August Record Lows Freezing or Below...But Snow?

Sun May 17 12:43:50 PDT 2009

The list of Arctic people's words for snow that I provided a website for
could have been fabricated or in error somehow.  The reference for the list
was a Julian Bentham, Adelaide Research Center, but I could not find any
reference, as far as I searched, matching this source, though this does not
prove the list is a fraud or in error:

http://www.elements.nb.ca/kids/snow/snoword.htm
---------
Below read discussion from January, 2007 from the linguist you referenced,
Geoffrey Pullum, about the nature of Arctic people's languages, explaining
his position on the myth about "words" for snow:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004003.html

I quote:

"The point is that we want to count one for each family of derived words
like *snow*, *snowy*, *snowing*, *snowlike*, *snowstorm*, etc.; if you don't
do that, then Eskimoan languages not only have millions of words for snow,
they have millions of words for fish, millions of words for coffee, millions
of words for absolutely anything, which makes the whole discussion
irrelevant to anything about snow."

And:

"So where English uses separate words to make up descriptive phrases like
"early snow falling in autumn" or "snow with a herring-scale pattern etched
into it by rainfall", Eskimo languages have an astonishing propensity for
being able to express such concepts (about anything, not just snow) with a
single derived word."
---------
But looking for other sources to illuminate the debate about whether or
not Arctic people's have dozens of words for snow, I found an even more
extensive list of "snow words," and more discussion about what a "word"
for snow linguistically speaking, really means, when comparing Arctic
people's languages and English. English has a long list of words, according
to this source, or lexemes, as they are called below, for snow:

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/eskimo.html

 6. English snow lexemes (22 for comparison)

  avalanche sleet blizzard slush dusting snow bank flurry snow cornice
frost snow
fort hail snow house hardpack snow man ice lens snowball igloo (Inuit iglu
'house') snowflake pingo (Inuit pingu(q) 'ice lens') snowstorm powder
spindrift

---------

And here is a list of "snow words" from Greenland from a researcher who
appears to really exist, Michael Fortescue:

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2811250?lookfor=fortescue&offset=6&max=369

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/research/eskimo2.html

>From website above:

Note that these lists include "ice". You might read through the list and
decide how many words are specific to "snow" (and how much difference that
might make to the argument).

10 words for ice and snow from Labradoran Inuit
1.'ice' sikko
2.'bare ice' tingenek
3.'snow (in general)' aput
4.'snow (like salt)' pukak
5.'soft deep snow' mauja
6.'snowdrift' tipvigut
7.'soft snow' massak
8.'watery snow' mangokpok
9.'snow filled with water' massalerauvok
10.'soft snow' akkilokipok

49 words for snow and ice from West Greenlandic

*(word list taken from Fortescue's West Greenlandic grammar).*

1.'sea-ice' siku (in plural = drift ice)
2.'pack-ice/large expanses of ice in motion' sikursuit, pl. (compacted drift
ice/ice field = sikut iqimaniri)
3.'new ice' sikuliaq/sikurlaaq (solid ice cover = nutaaq.)
4.'thin ice' sikuaq (in plural = thin ice floes)
5.'rotten (melting) ice floe' sikurluk
6.'iceberg' iluliaq (ilulisap itsirnga = part of iceberg below waterline)
7.'(piece of) fresh-water ice' nilak
8.'lumps of ice stranded on the beach' issinnirit, pl.
9.'glacier' (also ice forming on objects) sirmiq (sirmirsuaq = Inland Ice)
10.'snow blown in (e.g. doorway)' sullarniq
11.'rime/hoar-frost' qaqurnak/kanirniq/kaniq
12.'frost (on inner surface of e.g. window)' iluq
13.'icy mist' pujurak/pujuq kanirnartuq
14.'hail' nataqqurnat
15.'snow (on ground)' aput (aput sisurtuq = avalanche)
16.'slush (on ground)' aput masannartuq
17.'snow in air/falling' qaniit (qanik = snowflake)
18.'air thick with snow' nittaalaq (nittaallat, pl. = snowflakes; nittaalaq
nalliuttiqattaartuq = flurries)
19.'hard grains of snow' nittaalaaqqat, pl.
20.'feathery clumps of falling snow' qanipalaat
21.'new fallen snow' apirlaat
22.'snow crust' pukak
23.'snowy weather' qannirsuq/nittaatsuq
24.'snowstorm' pirsuq/pirsirsursuaq
25.'large ice floe' iluitsuq
26.'snowdrift' apusiniq
27.'ice floe' puttaaq
28.'hummocked ice/pressure ridges in pack ice' maniillat/ingunirit, pl.
29.'drifting lump of ice' kassuq (dirty lump of glacier-calved ice =
anarluk)
30.'ice-foot (left adhering to shore)' qaannuq
31.'icicle' kusugaq
32.'opening in sea ice imarnirsaq/ammaniq (open water amidst ice = imaviaq)
33.'lead (navigable fissure) in sea ice' quppaq
34.'rotten snow/slush on sea' qinuq
35.'wet snow falling' imalik
36.'rotten ice with streams forming' aakkarniq
37.'snow patch (on mountain, etc.)' aputitaq
38.'wet snow on top of ice' putsinniq/puvvinniq
39.'smooth stretch of ice' manirak (stretch of snow-free ice = quasaliaq)
40.'lump of old ice frozen into new ice' tuaq
41.'new ice formed in crack in old ice' nutarniq
42.'bits of floating' naggutit, pl.
43.'hard snow' mangiggal/mangikaajaaq
44.'small ice floe (not large enough to stand on)' masaaraq
45.'ice swelling over partially frozen river, etc. from water seeping up to
the surface' siirsinniq
46.'piled-up ice-floes frozen together' tiggunnirit
47.'mountain peak sticking up through inland ice' nunataq
48.'calved ice (from end of glacier)' uukkarnit
49.'edge of the (sea) ice' sinaaq

*Miscellaneous.*

While English "igloo" meaning 'snow house' comes from Inuit, "iglo" (or
"illu") more generally means 'house' or home' in most dialects. Sometimes
houses are constructed of peat[3,4]. English "kayak" comes from Intuit
"qayaq" (means the same)[3,4].
The stereotypical Eskimo name Nanook corresponds to "nanuq" 'polar bear'

*Ref:Stuart P. Derby from The AFU and Urban Legend Archive Language*

And Mark Halpern adds:

The following letter appeared on page 8 of New York magazine for June 13,
1994:

  In the "Fast Track" piece "The Very, Very Tiresome Season of Storms" [by
Steven J. Dubner, February 28], Dr. Steven Pinker of MIT is quoted as saying
that Eskimos don't really have hundreds of different words for snow. He
states, "They have exactly as many or perhaps two or three more words than
English speakers."
I have spent the past 22 years living in an Inupiat Eskimo community.
According to the North Slope Borough's Inupiat History, Language, and
Culture division, the Inupiats have more than 30 words for snow, and more
than 70 for ice. In the Arctic, the specific conditions of snow and ice are
critical to hunting and survival; two or three words would hardly cover our
needs.

Elise Sereni Patkotak
Public Information Officer
North Slope Borough
Barrow, Alaska

------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 5/14/09, Don Coombs <mushroom at moscow.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Ted Moffett wrote:
> > I recall that Arctic peoples have dozens of words for different kinds of
> > frozen precipitation--
> >
>
> Ted not only recalled, but cited a number of the words.
> Another view is presented in Geoffrey K. Pullum's
> "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax (and other irreverent
> essays on the study of language)" (University of
> Chicago Press, 1991).
>
> Pullum suggests that at least in West Greenland there
> are only two basic terms, one for "snow in the air" and
> one for "snow on the ground."
>
> Pullum is (or was) a professor of linguistics and dean
> of grad studies at U. Cal Santa Cruz, and for years
> wrote a regular column in "Natural Language and
> Linguistic Theory." The book is a collection of his
> columns.
>
> He makes the point that the story about the many
> words for snow makes so much sense that it will go on
> forever, whether true or not.
>
> Ted's citations suggest that at least in some cold
> white lands, they do have many words.
>
> Don Coombs
>
>
>
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
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