Subject: ' snow ' lexemes in yup ' ik

in linguist vol-5 - 1231 , david prager branner writes : > there is talk again on the linguist list about the " great eskimo snow > hoax " . > > . . . i would like to hear from an inuit > or tlingit specialist on just what the snow situation really is in these > languages . frankly , i find it rather hard to believe . > > rural southern chinese dialects have lots of words for different kinds of > rice , . . . > . . . > so why should n't inuit > have a dozen or more words for different kinds of cold precipitation ? when geoff pullum 's book , ' the great eskimo vocabulary hoax , ' came out , i started getting quite a number of inquiries from journalists about " words for 's now ' in eskimo . " that motivated me to prepare the appended item . please feel free to pass it around . tony woodbury * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * counting eskimo words for snow : a citizen 's guide lexemes referring to snow and snow-related notions in steven a . jacobson 's ( 1984 ) yup ' ik eskimo dictionary [ 1 ] anthony c . woodbury university of texas at austin july 1991 this is a list of lexemes referring to snow and related notions in one eskimo language , central alaskan yupik ( or just yup ' ik eskimo ) . it is spoken by about 13 , 000 people in the coast and river areas of southwestern alaska from norton sound to bristol bay . it is one of five eskimo languages . ( of these five , probably the best-known is inuit , spoken in a series of well-differentiated dialects ranging from northern alaska , all across the canadian far north , and up to the coast of greenland . while the term inuit is preferred to eskimo by many in canada , the term is retained here because ( a ) it properly refers to any eskimo group , not only the inuit ; and ( b ) its use is widespread in native communities in alaska . ) this is a list of lexemes rather than of words . roughly , a lexeme can be thought of as an independent vocabulary item or dictionary entry . it 's different from a word since a lexeme can give rise to more than one distinctly inflected word . thus english has a single lexeme _ speak _ which gives rise to inflected forms like _ speaks _ , _ spoke _ , and _ spoken _ . it 's especially important to count lexemes rather than words when talking about eskimo languages . that 's because they are inflectionally so complicated that each single noun lexeme may have about 280 distinct inflected forms , while each verb lexeme may have over 1000 ! obviously , that would put the number of snow words through the roof very quickly . the list is organized according to lexeme * meanings * . perhaps somewhat arbitrarily i have counted fifteen of them , placing within each of them noun and / or verb lexemes having the same basic sense . and perhaps even more arbitrarily , i ' ve grouped these fifteen meanings into four larger sets . but the most arbitrary decision of all is left to the discretion of the reader-the decision of how to count the lexemes themselves . here are some of the problems you face : ( a ) are all fifteen lexeme meanings really 's now ' - meanings ? that is , do words with these meanings really count for you as words for snow ? [ 2 ] ( b ) there are some synonyms present - - alternative lexemes with the same meaning , like garbage vs . trash in english . are you going to count them separately , or together ? ( c ) if you decided to count synonyms together , will you also count together both of the members of noun-verb pairs having basically the same meaning ? ( the members are , technically speaking , separate lexemes since partly idiosyncratic morphological changes mark the verbal forms , and must therefore be listed separately in any truly informative dictionary , as indeed jacobson 's dictionary does . ) ( d ) following jacobson , i ' ve specially labelled those lexemes that only occur in a small subpart of the central alaskan yupik - speaking region . are you going to try to make counts for each separate dialect ? if yes , you will wonder if you really have enough information to do so . ( you ' re not alone in this-such information is difficult to compile , whether or not you are a linguist , and also whether or not you are a native speaker of a language . ) [ 3 ] a . snow particles ( 1 ) snowflake qanuk 's nowflake ' qanir - ' to snow ' qanunge - ' to snow ' [ nun ] qanugglir - ' to snow ' [ nun ] ( 2 ) frost kaneq ' frost ' kaner - ' be frosty / frost sth . ' ( 3 ) fine snow / rain particles kanevvluk ' fine snow / rain particles kanevcir - to get fine snow / rain particles ( 4 ) drifting particles natquik 'd rifting snow / etc ' natqu ( v ) igte - ' for snow / etc . to drift along ground ' ( 5 ) clinging particles nevluk ' clinging debris / nevlugte - ' have clinging debris / . . . ' lint / snow / dirt . . . ' b . fallen snow ( 6 ) fallen snow on the ground aniu [ ns ] 's now on ground ' aniu - [ ns ] ' get snow on ground ' apun [ ns ] 's now on ground ' qanikcaq 's now on ground ' qanikcir - ' get snow on ground ' ( 7 ) soft , deep fallen snow on the ground muruaneq 's oft deep snow ' ( 8 ) crust on fallen snow qetrar - [ nsu ] ' for snow to crust ' qerretrar - [ nsu ] ' for snow to crust ' ( 9 ) fresh fallen snow on the ground nutaryuk ' fresh snow ' [ hbc ] ( 10 ) fallen snow floating on water qanisqineq 's now floating on water ' c . snow formations ( 11 ) snow bank qengaruk 's now bank ' [ y , hbc ] ( 12 ) snow block utvak 's now carved in block ' ( 13 ) snow cornice navcaq [ nsu ] 's now cornice , snow ( formation ) about to collapse ' navcite - ' get caught in an avalanche ' d . meterological events ( 14 ) blizzard , snowstorm pirta ' blizzard , snowstorm ' pircir - ' to blizzard ' pirtuk ' blizzard , snowstorm ' ( 15 ) severe blizzard cellallir - , cellarrlir - ' to snow heavily ' pir ( e ) t ( e ) pag - ' to blizzard severely ' pirrelvag - ' to blizzard severely ' appendix : an unordered list of english snow lexemes avalanche blizzard blowing snow dusting flurry frost hail hardpack ice lens igloo ( inuit iglu ' house ' ) pingo ( inuit pingu ( q ) ' ice lens ' ) powder sleet slushsnow snow bank snow cornice snow fort snow house snow man snow-mixed - with-rain ? snowflake snowstorm others ? footnotes 1 . published by alaska native language center , university of alaska , fairbanks . 2 . the indeterminacy and difficulty of this question is due to the fact that words do n't merely match pre-existing things in the world . rather , they shape and encapsulate ideas about things - - how they are categorized ( compare dog vs . canine ) , how we are interacting with them ( compare sheep vs . mutton ) , how the word functions grammatically ( compare the noun cow vs . the adjective bovine ) , and how we wish to represent our attitudes about them ( compare critter vs . varmint ) . it was in connection with this point that discussion of eskimo words for snow first arose ( in the writings of two major 20th century anthropological linguists , franz boas and benjamin lee whorf ) . unfortunately , their point has been pretty much missed by those who insist on counting . 3 . here are the dialect area abbreviations used : ns norton sound dialect nsu norton sound , unaliq subdialect hbc hooper bay - chevak y yukon river area subdialect of general central alaskan yupik dialect nun nunivak
