How many words do the Eskimo have for snow?
trivia/eskimo.snow Added material
Problem
How many words do the Eskimo have for snow?
Show solution
Couple of weeks ago, someone named D.K. Holm in the Boston Phoenix came up
with the list, drawn from the Inupiat Eskimo Dictionary by Webster and
Zibell, and from Thibert's English-Eskimo Eskimo-English Dictionary.
The words may remind you of generated passwords.
Eskimo English Eskimo English
---------------------------------+----------------------------
apun snow | pukak sugar snow
apingaut first snowfall | pokaktok salt-like snow
aput spread-out snow | miulik sleet
kanik frost | massak snow mixed with water
kanigruak frost on a | auksalak melting snow
living surface | aniuk snow for melting
ayak snow on clothes | into water
kannik snowflake | akillukkak soft snow
nutagak powder snow | milik very soft snow
aniu packed snow | mitailak soft snow covering an
aniuvak snowbank | opening in an ice floe
natigvik snowdrift | sillik hard, crusty snow
kimaugruk snowdrift that | kiksrukak glazed snow in a thaw
blocks something | mauya snow that can be
perksertok drifting snow | broken through
akelrorak newly drifting snow | katiksunik light snow
mavsa snowdrift overhead | katiksugnik light snow deep enough
and about to fall | for walking
kaiyuglak rippled surface | apuuak snow patch
of snow | sisuuk avalanche
=*=
From LINGUIST
When Geoff Pullum's book, 'The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax,' came out, I
started getting quite a number of inquiries from journalists about "words
for 'snow' in Eskimo." That motivated me to prepare the appended item.
Please feel free to pass it around.
Tony Woodbury
********************************
Counting Eskimo words for snow:
A citizen's guide
Lexemes referring to snow and snow-related notions in Steven A. Jacobson's
(1984) Yup'ik Eskimo dictionary[1]
Anthony C. Woodbury
University of Texas at Austin
July 1991
This is a list of lexemes referring to snow and related notions in one
Eskimo language, Central Alaskan Yupik (or just Yup'ik Eskimo). It is
spoken by about 13,000 people in the coast and river areas of Southwestern
Alaska from Norton Sound to Bristol Bay. It is one of five Eskimo
languages. (Of these five, probably the best-known is Inuit, spoken in a
series of well-differentiated dialects ranging from Northern Alaska, all
across the Canadian far north, and up to the coast of Greenland. While the
term Inuit is preferred to Eskimo by many in Canada, the term is retained
here because (a) it properly refers to any Eskimo group, not only the
Inuit; and (b) its use is widespread in Native communities in Alaska.)
This is a list of lexemes rather than of words. Roughly, a lexeme can be
thought of as an independent vocabulary item or dictionary entry. It's
different from a word since a lexeme can give rise to more than one
distinctly inflected word. Thus English has a single lexeme _speak_ which
gives rise to inflected forms like _speaks_, _spoke_, and _spoken_. It's
especially important to count lexemes rather than words when talking about
Eskimo languages. That's because they are inflectionally so complicated
that each single noun lexeme may have about 280 distinct inflected forms,
while each verb lexeme may have over 1000! Obviously, that would put the
number of snow words through the roof very quickly.
The list is organized according to lexeme *meanings*. Perhaps somewhat
arbitrarily I have counted fifteen of them, placing within each of them
noun and/or verb lexemes having the same basic sense. And perhaps even
more arbitrarily, I've grouped these fifteen meanings into four larger
sets. But the most arbitrary decision of all is left to the discretion of
the reader-the decision of how to count the lexemes themselves. Here are
some of the problems you face:
(a) Are all fifteen lexeme meanings really 'snow'-meanings? That is,
do words with these meanings really count for you as words for snow?[2]
(b) There are some synonyms present--alternative lexemes with the same
meaning, like garbage vs. trash in English. Are you going to count them
separately, or together?
(c) If you decided to count synonyms together, will you also count
together both of the members of noun-verb pairs having basically the same
meaning? (The members are, technically speaking, separate lexemes since
partly idiosyncratic morphological changes mark the verbal forms, and must
therefore be listed separately in any truly informative dictionary, as
indeed Jacobson's dictionary does.)
(d) Following Jacobson, I've specially labelled those lexemes that only
occur in a small subpart of the Central Alaskan Yupik-speaking region. Are
you going to try to make counts for each separate dialect? If yes, you
will wonder if you really have enough information to do so. (You're not
alone in this-such information is difficult to compile, whether or not you
are a linguist, and also whether or not you are a native speaker of a
language.)[3]
A. Snow particles
(1) Snowflake
qanuk 'snowflake'
qanir- 'to snow'
qanunge- 'to snow' [NUN]
qanugglir- 'to snow' [NUN]
(2) Frost
kaneq 'frost'
kaner- 'be frosty/frost sth.'
(3) Fine snow/rain particles
kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles
kanevcir- to get fine snow/rain particles
(4) Drifting particles
natquik 'drifting snow/etc'
natqu(v)igte- 'for snow/etc. to drift along ground'
(5) Clinging particles
nevluk 'clinging debris/
nevlugte- 'have clinging debris/...'lint/snow/dirt...'
B. Fallen snow
(6) Fallen snow on the ground
aniu [NS] 'snow on ground'
aniu- [NS] 'get snow on ground'
apun [NS] 'snow on ground'
qanikcaq 'snow on ground'
qanikcir- 'get snow on ground'
(7) Soft, deep fallen snow on the ground
muruaneq 'soft deep snow'
(8) Crust on fallen snow
qetrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust'
qerretrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust'
(9) Fresh fallen snow on the ground
nutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC]
(10) Fallen snow floating on water
qanisqineq 'snow floating on water'
C. Snow formations
(11) Snow bank
qengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC]
(12) Snow block
utvak 'snow carved in block'
(13) Snow cornice
navcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse'
navcite- 'get caught in an avalanche'
D. Meterological events
(14) Blizzard, snowstorm
pirta 'blizzard, snowstorm'
pircir- 'to blizzard'
pirtuk 'blizzard, snowstorm'
(15) Severe blizzard
cellallir-, cellarrlir- 'to snow heavily'
pir(e)t(e)pag- 'to blizzard severely'
pirrelvag- 'to blizzard severely'
APPENDIX: An unordered list of English snow lexemes
avalanche
blizzard
blowing snow
dusting
flurry
frost
hail
hardpack
ice lens
igloo (Inuit iglu 'house')
pingo (Inuit pingu(q) 'ice lens')
powder
sleet
slushsnow
snow bank
snow cornice
snow fort
snow house
snow man
snow-mixed-with-rain?
snowflake
snowstorm
others?
FOOTNOTES
1. Published by Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska,
Fairbanks.
2. The indeterminacy and difficulty of this question is due to the fact
that words don't merely match pre-existing things in the world. Rather,
they shape and encapsulate ideas about things--how they are categorized
(compare dog vs. canine), how we are interacting with them (compare sheep
vs. mutton), how the word functions grammatically (compare the noun cow vs.
the adjective bovine), and how we wish to represent our attitudes about
them (compare critter vs. varmint). It was in connection with this point
that discussion of Eskimo words for snow first arose (in the writings of
two major 20th Century anthropological linguists, Franz Boas and Benjamin
Lee Whorf). Unfortunately, their point has been pretty much missed by
those who insist on counting.
3. Here are the dialect area abbreviations used:
NS Norton Sound dialect
NSU Norton Sound, Unaliq subdialect
HBC Hooper Bay-Chevak
Y Yukon River area subdialect of General Central Alaskan Yupik dialect
NUN Nunivak
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LINGUIST List: Vol-5-1239.
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Additional material
Mention has been made of the paper by Geoffrey Pullum. Let me recommend a book by Pullum entitled The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language, a 1991 paperback from the University of Chicago Press. -- Merlin <Murray100@aol.com> [ Editor: a 1998 thread on the National Puzzlers' League mailing list (npl-folk). Tony Woodbury's list, which it refers to, is already in this entry. ] The following was just sent to another list to which I subscribe; I believe it may be of interest to us, as well. >Outwitted by Inuit -- the Eskimo snow mystery resolved > >William Hartston (Independent [London], "Eye" section 15-1-98 >[reproduced & disseminated without permission] > >I have just received (with eternal gratitude to Prof David Reidel, of >the University of York) a copy of a paper entitled "The great Eskimo >vocabulary hoax" by Geoffrey Pullum (_Natural Language and Linguistic >Theory_), Vol 7, 1989). This is the paper that nails, once and for all, >the myth that Eskimos have hundreds of different words for snow, and it >is one of the most entertaining shaggy academic tales I have read for a >long time. > >The original source of the myth, about "these lexically profligate >hyperborean nomads" as Pullum describes them, is Franz Boas' >introduction to _The Handbook of North American Indians_ (1911) where >the author gives examples of independent versus derived terms for >related things. While English may have words such as liquid, lake, >river, brook, rain, dew, wave and foam -- all formed from different >roots -- another language might describe them all by words derived from >a single root meaning 'water'. Eskimo, he says, uses the distinct roots >_aput_ 'snow on the ground', _qana_ 'falling snow', _piqsirpoq,_ >'drifting snow', _qimuqsuq,_ 'a snow drift', while English cannot get >away from "snow". > >"What happened next," Pullum explains, "was that Benjamin Lee Whorf, >Connecticut fire prevention inspector and weekend language-fancier, >picked up Boas' example and used it, vaguely, in his 1940 amateur >linguistics article 'Science and linguistics', which was published in >MIT's promotional magazine _Technology Review_." > >With apparently no knowledge of Inuit languages, Whorf wrote: "We have >the same word for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed hard >like ice, wind-driven snow -- whatever the situation may be. To an >Eskimo, this all-inclusive word would be almost unthinkable; he would >say that falling snow, slushy snow, and so on, are sensuously and >operationally different, different things to contend with; he uses >different words for them and for other kinds of snow." > >Adding together these examples, we see that Boas' four Eskimo words for >snow have been inflated into at least seven, and as more popular sources >got hold of Whorf's paper, the number grew and grew. Pullum gives >examples, from 1978 and 1984, of "fifty", "nine", "a hundred" and "two >hundred". Even the science section of the _New York_ _Times_ in 1988 >said "four dozen". > >"Among the many depressing things about this credulous transmission and >elaboration of a false claim," Pullum laments, "is that even if there >were a large number of roots for different types of snow in some Arctic >language, this would not, objectively, be intellectually interesting. It >would be a most mundane and unremarkable fact ... only the link to those >legendary, promiscuous, blubber-gnawing hunters of the ice-packs could >permit something this trite to be presented to us for contemplation." > >So what are we to do when yet another person tells us of all the Eskimo >words for snow? "Don't be a coward like me," advises Pullum, recalling >an incident when he had quietly left the room. "Stand up and tell the >speaker this: C.W. Shultz-Lorentzen's _Dictionary of the West >Greenlandic Eskimo Language_ (1927) gives just two possible relevant >roots: _qanik_, meaning 'snow in the air' or 'snowflake', and _aput_, >meaning 'snow on the ground'. Then add that you would be interested to >know if the speaker can cite any more." > >He says it will have the effect of pouring thick oatmeal into a >harpsichord during a recital, but "it will strike a blow for truth, >responsibility, and standards of evidence in linguistics." -- David Carson Berry <david.berry@yale.edu>, January 1998 See http://www.rt66.com/~srlee/OOOWOO/eskimo.html or http://commons.utopia.usweb.com/mailings/rre/Eskimo.words.for.snow.html for an article from the LINGUIST list (Vol-5-1239) by Tony Woodbury, which considers the following 15 candidate lexemes: qanuk 'snowflake' kaneq 'frost' kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles natquik 'drifting snow/etc' nevluk 'clinging debris/ aniu [NS] 'snow on ground' muruaneq 'soft deep snow' qetrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust' nutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC] qanisqineq 'snow floating on water' qengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC] utvak 'snow carved in block' navcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse' pirta 'blizzard, snowstorm' cellallir-, cellarrlir- 'to snow heavily' -- Roger Phillips <roger@quantime.co.uk> This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. When someone is making a point and says, "The Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow." I usually hold up a finger (no, not that one) and interject, "That's not true, by the way... but go on." <<an article from the LINGUIST list (Vol-5-1239) by Tony Woodbury, which considers the following 15 candidate lexemes:>> <snip> It seem to me that we'd have to remove from that list of 15 any words which OUR language ALSO has another word for. Such as: <<kaneq 'frost'>> <<muruaneq 'soft deep snow'>> "powder" <<pirta 'blizzard, snowstorm'>> <<cellallir-, cellarrlir- 'to snow heavily'>> "flurries" (Same thing? Or is this a word that we have for snow that the Eskimos don't? Are we one up on them in the flurry department?) And what about those 5 words ending in -uk? Those aren't closely related enough to merit one entry? If not we're down to 11. If so, 7. Mmmm... 7-11. Going to get a burrito. Later. -- Chainsaw <Chaneski@aol.com> Chainsaw wrote: > It seem to me that we'd have to remove from that list of 15 > any words which OUR language ALSO has another word for. Huh? What's English got to do with it? > And what about those 5 words ending in -uk? > Those aren't closely related enough to merit one entry? I assume they're not related, since a linguist has bothered to make the distinction between lexemes and words. Mr Woodbury's article isn't touted as a definitive answer - indeed, it raises doubts about the arbitrariness in counting. I recommend that anyone who wants to argue the point reads his article first. Here are the URLs again: http://commons.utopia.usweb.com/mailings/rre/Eskimo.words.for.snow.html http://www.rt66.com/~srlee/OOOWOO/eskimo.html -- Roger Phillips <roger@quantime.co.uk>