Yupik words for snow

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Feb 11 19:20:05 UTC 2014


I'm still tracking "words for snow" but I've mostly stopped posting them
because much of the material is basically recycled. There are now even
chlichéed sub-snowclones, e.g., "As Eskimos/Inuits have
hundreds/40/50/72 words for snow, the English/Scots/Canadians have words
for rain/fog/foul weather", "... Jews/Yiddish have/has words for crazy",
etc. But I've only seen Yupiks mentioned once before and this piece is
so over-the-top with multiple cliche, I thought I should post an extract:

http://goo.gl/HhQnPZ
Snow threatens Miller time but all white for Ligety
>
> According to one study, the Yupik dialect in central Siberia contains
> around 50 words for snow, whether it be the fluffy stuff, the mushy
> type or just the downright slippery variety.
>
> Some of those descriptions might come in handy at the Sochi Olympics
> Alpine skiing center over the next few days where snow conditions are
> dominating conversations and dividing opinions among the world's top
> racers.
>
> Ted Ligety, triple world champion and favorite for Friday's super
> combined, joined the debate on Tuesday after getting his first feel of
> the snow since jetting in from Switzerland and seemed happy enough.
>
> Team mate Bode Miller, never short of a few words when discussing
> snowflakes, especially since rising temperatures softened the Rosa
> Khutor slope too much for his liking in Sunday's downhill, was less
> enthusiastic.
> ...
>
> He also played down Miller's assertion that the downhill course had
> transformed from a Siberian tiger into a pussy cat.
>
>

Miller actually did not blame the weather. I watched the interview with
him after the poor (for him) finish and he specifically pointed to the
design of the course not being suitable for him. The TV announcer
comments were similar, as they said that Miller needs to "see what's in
front of him" to do well, so blind turns are not suitable for his style.
To make up for lack of substance, Martyn Herman apparently thought he
should add verbal flourish.

     VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list