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Eskimo Words for 'Snow'
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| Some time in the future, and it may be soon, you will
be told by someone that Eskimos have many or dozens or scores or hundreds
of words for snow. You, gentle reader, must decide here and now whether
you are going to let them get away with it. . . . |
| The last time it happened (other than through the medium
of print) was in July 1988 at the University of California's Irvine campus,
where I was attending the university's annual Management Institute. Not
just one lecturer but two of them somehow (don't ask me how) worked the
Eskimological falsehood into their tediuous presentations on management
psychology and administrative problem-solving. The first time I attempted
to demur and was glared at by lecturer and classmates alike; the second
time, discretion for once getting the upper hand over valor, I just held
my face in my hands for a minute, then quietly closed my binder and crept
out of the room. |
| Don't be a coward like me. Stand up and tell the speaker
this: C.W. Schult-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. |
| This will not make you the most popular person in the
room. It will have an effect roughly comparable to pouring fifty gallons
of thick oatmeal into a harpsichord during a baroque recital. But it will
strike a blow for truth, responsibility, and standards of evidence in linguistics. |