Eskimo words for snow
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== See also == | == See also == | ||
*[[Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]] | *[[Sapir–Whorf hypothesis]] | ||
- | *[[Sami language]] | + | *[[Linguistic relativity and the color naming debate]] |
*[[Snowclone]] | *[[Snowclone]] | ||
{{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} |
Revision as of 19:26, 26 March 2014
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The "Eskimo words for snow" claim is a popular urban legend, alleging that the Inuit or Eskimos have an unusually large number of words for snow. There is no single "Eskimo" language, but in general, the Eskimo-Aleut languages have about the same number of distinct word roots referring to snow as English does. This urban legend gave rise to similar ones and the neologism snowclone.
Languages in the Inuit/Innu language group add suffixes to words to express the same concepts expressed in English and many other languages by means of compound words, phrases, and even entire sentences. One can create a practically unlimited number of new words in the Eskimoan languages on any topic, not just snow, and these same concepts can be expressed in other languages using combinations of words. It is therefore not relevant or meaningful to compare the number of words between languages that create words in different ways due to different grammatical structures. Most linguists today consider it a myth that Eskimos have an unusually large number of words for snow.
See also