how many words for "snow" do the Inuit really have?
finding this answer has proved much more difficult than I anticipated.
There have been books written on this..The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax by Geoffrey Pullum
"1911 when anthropologist Franz Boaz casually mentioned that the Inuit—he called them "Eskimos," using the derogatory term of a tribe to the south of them for eaters of raw meat—had four different words for snow. With each succeeding reference in textbooks and the popular press the number grew to sometimes as many as 400 words. In fact, "Contrary to popular belief, the Eskimos do not have more words for snow than do speakers of English," according to linguist Steven Pinker in his book The Language Instinct. "Counting generously, experts can come up with about a dozen."
The myth initially began by somone named Phil James who compiled the Eskimo's One Hundred Words For Snow
Part of the list:
tlapa - powder snow
tlacringit - snow that is crusted on the surface
kayi - drifting snow
tlapat - still snow
klin - remembered snow
naklin - forgotten snow.
The list moves into longer phrases like these:
talini - snow angels
priyakli - snow that looks like it's falling upward
chiup - snow that makes halos
blontla - snow that's shaken off in the mudroom
tlalman - snow sold to German tourists
tlalam - snow sold to American tourists
tlanip - snow sold to Japanese tourists
and so on..
Wow that is crazy. I also never knew that Eskimo was not the proper name for this group of people. Its crazy how history twists things to the favor of the victor.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i once believed in the great vocab hoax. but npr debunked that in a feature they had a couple years ago. i mean, think of the words we have for snow: slush, powder, flurries, blizzard, snowflakes. like, w/e linguists!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post, truly. I never even considered that they had alternate words for snow. I COULD understand it though being that I imagine snow plays a pretty big role in their lives on a daily basis. I'd imagine it would be awful always being referred to as "Eskimos" rather than Inuit. I wonder if they take offense to it in the same manner an African-American might to the N-word.
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