words for snow (reply)

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 6, 2014, at 10:37 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:

>> "njirru" is an unmanageable female
> Useful word.
> DAD

I think it takes a busat to publish an article like that, if not a pair.

LH

>
> Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 1:14 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: words for snow (reply)
>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: words for snow (reply)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> See also Pullum's riposte:
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4419#more-4419
>
> LH
>
>
> On Jan 6, 2014, at 2:48 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
>> Groan!
>>
>> http://goo.gl/a7iP4
>>> Mentioning his observations in the introduction to his 1911 book
>>> "Handbook of American Indian Languages," he ignited the claim that
>>> Eskimos have dozens, or even hundreds, of words for snow. Although the
>>> idea continues to capture public imagination, most linguists
>>> considered it an urban legend, born of sloppy scholarship and
>>> journalistic exaggeration. Some have even gone as far as to name it
>>> the Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. The latest evidence, however,
>>> suggests that Boas was right all along.
>>> ...
>>> For many of these dialects, the vocabulary associated with sea ice is
>>> even richer.
>>> ...
>>> The Sami also have as many as 1,000 words for reindeer. These refer to
>>> such things as the reindeer's fitness ("leami" means a short, fat
>>> female reindeer), personality ("njirru" is an unmanageable female) and
>>> the shape of its antlers ("snarri" is a reindeer whose antlers are
>>> short and branched). There is even a Sami word to describe a bull with
>>> a single, very large testicle: "busat."
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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