h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

there is a saying about the eskimo having x number of words for snow.

does anyone know what the saying is, or how many words for snow it is ?

and is it a quote from someone/somewhere specific ?

thanks,
kea

There are may answers here. Have a look at Google.

Try http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow_derby.html

In "Being John Malkovich", Lottie (played by Cameron Diaz) says "Did you know that Eskimos have 42 words for snow?"

Of course the more PC term to use would be Inuits, instead of Eskimos.

Just a little complaint...would people actually post the answer on the thread, instead of just posting some link, that could one day become obselete? Would be far easier for people who want the answer in the future. It's such a cop out just linking to google...

looks like i'll have to go with 42

I think that it is 42 (how ironic! 42!!!!)...

Anyone know the actual words themselves though! Now that is a challenge...

I bet it is something silly...like just different language versions.

yeah but its always nice to get an interesting new website.

and its quite a long page. other than pasting it here, which i'm not sure is allowed, it would be a complicated answer.

thanks to you both though.

i just saw being john malkovich for the first time recently. how can john cusack do such an interestingly weird movie and then go do some of the other crap he's done recently ?

i was quite some way into the movie before i realised it was cameron diaz. i didn't remember the snow quote though.

My complaint with the whole links thing is, aside from the fact I can't access the net (long story, don't ask), is that this site *should* outlive the little links. Post the link, by all means, but it shouldn't be a substitute for people posting the answer to the question...I mean, it's kind of anti-h2g2...isn't it? Supposed to be a collection of knowledge.

The snow quote is when Maxine is around for tea at their house & Lottie is trying to seduce her

will this get me into trouble ?

from -

http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow_derby.html

by Stuart P. Derby

West Greenlandic -

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

the page also has some discussion on different languages.

i'd still like to know how the saying "the eskimo have 42 words for snow" got into the english language and idiom. someone must have started it.

But that's not snow!!!! That is various forms of ice/snow and how they are positioned in the landscape/how they form etc etc...

Interesting though.

i dunno . . . its all frozen water.

but even if you took out all the ice, there is still a lot of snow in there.

But isn't snow just ice anyway?

I don't know about snow, but people in Los Angeles have about two dozen words/phrases to describe traffic. And that's not even counting the obscene ones.

Like the Irish for Beer.

Eskimos do NOT have 40 words for snow

Taken from


http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?lastnode_id=125669&node_id=427823




A myth perpetuated by a series of linguistics scholars, starting with Franz Boas in 1911, who reported on four "words" for snow in Eskimo language. Eskimo languages form words differently than in English, and there is no one-to-one comparison between the two. In Eskimo, a root will be made into an almost limitless number of "words" by applying multiple suffixes. Boas' reference to the snow words was tied to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and then perpetuated itself as evidence of the link between language categories and thought.




(idea) by moJoe (2.5 wk) (print) ? 1 C! Sat Mar 18 2000 at 0:58:26


10 words for ice and snow from Labradoran Inuit (Inuit is one of many Eskimo language and not a word for snow in case anyone was confused).
'ice' sikko
'bare ice' tingenek
'snow (in general)' aput
'snow (like salt)' pukak
'soft deep snow' mauja
'snowdrift' tipvigut
'soft snow' massak
'watery snow' mangokpok
'snow filled with water' massalerauvok
'soft snow' akkilokipok
There are 49 words for different types of snow in Western Greenlandic in its different forms such as "frost" and "icy mist", which is a strech, but still. I don't feel like listing them all here. If you are interested, visit:

http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow_derby.html








More general discussion of this can be found at http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow.html and http://www.public.iastate.edu/~honeyl/derrida/eskimos.html

The average English dialect has just as many words for snow as the average Inuktitut dialect. After spending about ten minutes with Google, I found these root words for "frozen precipitation":

snow (general mass term)
sleet
slush
avalanche
blizzard
ice
freeze, frozen
hail (thanks Gorgonzola)
(Source: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/5/5-1293.html)
The list increases dramatically if slang terms for cocaine are included.

The urban legend in question derives from the agglutinative nature of the Inuktitut language; because the definition of what makes a word and what doesn't is a little foggy, compound words (compare English snowball, snowflake, snowstorm, snowblind, snowfall, snowman, snowdrift, snowplow, etc.) get counted and over-counted.

On the other hand, English has numerous words for mud, more distinct than the snow roots; see http://www.alt-usage-english.org/ucle/ucle9.html


Seamus

I have no idea how drunk I was in regards to my last posting...