Re: Interesting Words
| From: | Elliott Lash <al260@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, November 5, 2001, 5:10 |
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>
> > On Sun, 4 Nov 2001 17:00:14 EST, Elliott Lash <AL260@...> wrote:
> >
> > >(that was a stupid subject line I know)
> > >
> > >Anyway, I'm wondering about that age old 'language myth' about the many words for
> > >snow in Eskimo. Now of course I know this is untrue, but, does anyone have a
> > >language with a similar group of words with related meanings? Let me try to
> > >demonstrate using Silindion.
> >
>
> Well now I'm curious what is this myth? I know that Nenets, Nganasan and
> Selkup have different words for snow depending on if it's old and hard,
> soft inside but crusty surface, thick slushy, watery slushy, and so on...
Oh..well that's the extent of what Eskimo does as well. The reason why it's a 'myth',
is that many people believe that the words all simply mean 'snow' which is not
the case.
Elliott
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