Over 100 words for snow?

[Wilson Gray]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Over 100 words for snow?
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> At 2/11/2009 12:07 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
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>>Geoffrey Pullum has shown that this claim is utter bullshit. BTW, are
>>you merely exaggerating for effect WRT "over 100 words"?
>
> No, the source I quoted says "over a hundred".  But it's a (1987)
> book on female felony in colonial Massachusetts, so perhaps the
> author can be excused.  (She uses "snow" among "Eskimos" as an
> analogy to the terms used in Puritan Massachusetts to refer to sexual
> misconduct -- the large number indicates the significance of concern.)
>
>>  I certainly
>>hope so, because, when I first heard this claim, ca.1950, it was that
>>the Eskimaux had *eight* words for various *concrete manifestations*
>>of snow," but *no* term for the concept, "snow," in the *abstract,*
>>such as exists in the languages of all civilized people.
>
> Seriously, though, I can imagine why there might be no "Eskimo" word
> for the "abstract concept" of snow.  Snow is very important to
> "Eskimos", so "snow" would be too ambiguous.  Just like "stepgrandparent".
>
> Joel
>
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I'm sure that this impression is the ultimate source of the claim. I
don't ski - I have *serious* acrophobia! - but I've wondered how many
words skiers have, snow being very important to them, too. Any known
research, casual or academic, on this topic?

-Wilson

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