LL-L "Lexicon" 2003.05.13 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Lexicon"

> From: Crostir  Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2003.05.11 (02) [E]
>
> On the one hand this is true; we've all heard how Inuktitut has one
> hundred words for 'snow' whereas English has just 'snow', but a simple

This is one of those facts you've got to be careful with!
It's also known as "The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax".

One well-known Inuktitut dictionary (the linguistics
textbook I'm referring to here doesn't say which) lists
four words for snow - "falling snow", "snow on the ground",
"drifting snow" and "snow drift"

You can get several more if you cast your net wide enough
amongst the various dialects.

Of course, as you say, it's more a case of lexicalisation
than expressiveness.

If we stick to widely-spoken, generally-accepted Scots the
list is comparable:

"falling snow"       snaw (not as specific as in Inuktitut,
                           presumably)
"snow on the ground" storm
"drifting snow"      spindrift
"snow drift"         drift

We also have "a glaister" (a thin covering of snow), "a
feuchter" - a brief, light fall of snow, and suchlike.

As with Inuktitut, you can cast your net wider and get
several more: for example in Shetlandic "flukra" means
"snow falling in heavy, clumped flakes". You could include
the technical terms for different kinds of snow used by
cross-country skiers too!

To expand on the phrase "lyin storm", a snowfall falling on
top of a pre-existing field of snow is called a "feedin storm".
You can talk about a "storm comin doon" to refer to falling
snow (ie, it will be fallen, once it has landed!), and "snowed
in" is "stormed in", and so forth. This is one of the many areas
where an English speaker can seriously misinterpret Scots, eg
"We couldn't go because of the storm" simply means that the
snow was lying too deep on the roads, on an otherwise nice,
sunny day.

English is unusually rich in terms for the perception of light
(I'm back to quoting my linguistics textbook here), even if you
stick to words every English speaker is likely to know and use.
There doesn't seem to be any reason why this should be the case
in English rather than in any other language.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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