Search results – LINGUIST

90 matches.
Item #DateTimeRecs Subject
00193193/01/1114:472994.9 Program: Georgetown University Round Table
00220893/04/1609:331654.280 FYI: Tagger code available, bibliographical database
00239893/06/1522:241654.468 Just for fun: Meteorological linguistics
00249893/07/2608:261564.567 Qs: Compounds, Russian, ARTFL, Mandarin
00264593/09/1513:151714.705 OK
00285793/11/0620:091064.925 Qs: Cook, Huff, Pay for informants, Borsley, Myth
00340394/03/2508:181305.533 New Books: Ling Theory, Formal and Computational Ling
00350194/04/2006:372995.453 Sum: Medical dictionaries and texts
00351494/04/2116:0015715.466 Sum: Numeral Classifiers
00356394/05/0406:471205.515 Varia: Cognitive, Flat earth, Bubba
00358394/05/0908:081295.535 Varia: Signs, Note on "shtreet" dialects, Flat earth
00379194/06/2607:495695.742 Sum: Bibliographical Software
00380794/06/2905:342525.758 Popularization of linguistics
00380894/06/2905:392075.759 Kurdish protest, linguistic human rights violations
00390494/07/2917:573095.855 Sum: Linguists vs normals
00392094/08/0410:401365.870 Calls: AAAL, Canadian Speech-Language Pathologists
00396594/08/2513:223395.917 Sum: Factors in personality traits
00425094/10/2923:22715.1197 Some folk etymologies, folk fact; terminological confusions
00425594/10/3023:121055.1202 Folk etymologies
00426594/11/0113:251435.1212 Qs: Passive/Ergative, X-rays/acoustic signals, Chinese, Kwaiisu
00428494/11/0413:182475.1231 Qs: Tagalog, Unaccusative langs, Analytic/synthetic, Eskimo
00429294/11/0601:313015.1239 Eskimo "snow"
00429794/11/0719:591795.1244 Qs: Corpus linguistics, Core readings,"snow", L2
00429994/11/0720:151905.1246 Qs: "Snow", Software, Clitic reduplication, Cues of emotions
00430494/11/0723:30585.1251 Sum: "typewriter" and Canadian raising
00430594/11/0723:361025.1252 Eskimo "snow"
00431294/11/0900:441175.1259 Eskimo "snow"
00432994/11/1206:156355.1276 Eskimo "snow"
00434694/11/1317:292075.1293 Words for snow in Eskimo and English Lgs
00437594/11/1912:083905.1318 Calls: Lat. Amer. Indian Lit., Spanish for Native Speakers, NLP
00437994/11/1913:34885.1322 Sapir-Whorf
00439294/11/2109:15755.1335 Sum: Concepts unknown in Dutch
00441494/11/2519:261405.1358 Words for snow
00443294/12/0218:082035.1375 FYI: Home page, Video Update, GLS'95 on WWW, Poem, CALL Reports
00443994/12/0415:43655.1382 Words for snow
00445894/12/0713:501785.1401 Sum: Snow
00447594/12/0819:121625.1418 Qs: Lexical Data Base,Reference for Dik,IPA, Starting data bank
00450694/12/1415:161455.1449 Sapir-Whorf, Words for snow
00450794/12/1415:303925.1450 Comparative Method
00457095/01/0816:411436.1 Moderators' message: LINGUIST policies
00458195/01/1214:34586.12 Greek and Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow
00465195/01/2011:07606.82 Fun: Silliness about Eskimo snow
00467795/01/2521:572636.111 Language and Species
00467995/01/2523:181136.113 Varia: Eskimo snow/Scottish rain, Open letter to _Language_, IPA
00474495/02/0907:201566.175 Sum: Register in the pre-school age
00484495/02/2211:591206.258 Linguistic Human rights (Latvia's language policy)
00491095/03/0914:32976.347 Rev: The Language of the Gods (Tyberg)
00498995/03/2201:443346.418 Sum: Linguistics in science fiction
00503995/03/3012:271536.469 Rev: Text and Technology (Baker, Francis, Tognini-Bonelli ed.)
00507995/04/0509:211356.509 Language policy
00511695/04/1214:123876.546 Confs: Morphology, syntax and phonology, Formal Ling Society
00525195/05/1301:143216.663, Confs: Natural lg processing, Preferred argument structure
00527695/05/1800:542826.697, Confs: Folger Institute, FLSM VI
00538495/06/1202:451766.805, Qs: Tenses & time, Buccalization, Compounds, ASL
00541695/06/2213:04976.837, Tolkien's Elvish languages
00542495/06/2222:214386.845, Language: Books Available for Review
00552195/07/0615:076766.942, Sum: Palindromes-3
00562595/08/0320:442286.1045, Sum: Judgment Fatigue: Part II
00569295/08/1709:261086.1112, Qs: Sapir-Whorf, Phrase identification, Yiddish
00576195/08/3012:532196.1181, Sum: Teenage ling
00594995/10/0613:132366.1372, FYI: Online training seminar, PBS series on ling
00600195/10/1417:502786.1424, Disc: Self-censorship
00601395/10/1611:434086.1436, All: Gimcrack (column on the Linguist List)
00621895/11/2209:412936.1642, Confs: GURT '96, Going Romance '95
00645796/01/2111:504577.90, FYI: LANGUAGE Book Notice List
00650596/01/2810:133637.138, Confs: European Second Language Association, GURT 96
00659996/02/1308:24817.232, Sum: Women/Language/Humour
00683296/03/2619:074347.465, FYI: Endangered languages documentation mailbox
00689096/04/1009:221517.523, Sum: Un-English segment sequences
00723396/06/1017:48687.865, Disc: Equality Among Languages
00725296/06/1314:214417.890, Disc: Equality among languages
00750596/08/1314:1212837.1143, FYI: LANGUAGE Book notices list -- August 1996
00757896/09/0120:332987.1217, Calls: Bilingualism, NLP in Implemented Systems
00758396/09/0210:262747.1222, Disc: Sumerian and PIE
00764696/09/1420:201327.1285, Sum: Variation in Mod.Std.Arabic pronunciation
00798396/11/1810:47897.1625, Qs: Myths in linguistics, ITRANS
00810896/12/1019:051477.1750, Jobs: Research Position in German Ling, TESOL Job
00823197/01/1713:105028.39, Sum: Myths in linguistics
00855997/03/1612:322328.363, Sum: Corpora
00862397/03/2815:362278.427, Confs: Emergentist approaches, Celtic teachers
00865897/04/0510:003438.454, Sum: Bibliography on Topic
00867897/04/0722:431538.474, Qs: Lexicon, Grammar checker, African lgs
00883597/04/3008:40948.631, Sum: Sociolinguistics/TESL Text
00887097/05/0619:022028.666, Sum: Hmong
00887597/05/0710:593088.671, Review: Trask: The History of Basque
00890097/05/1209:161648.696, Sum: Punctuation
00892397/05/1411:49908.719, Sum: Nonce formations in Italian
00967497/10/1214:072218.1469, Calls: Southasian Lang, Lang & Law
00993797/12/0211:211968.1732, Calls: Polish Association for Studies of English
00998497/12/1219:141678.1779, Sum: Critical Period References
Item #1931 (11 Jan 1993 14:47) - 4.9 Program: Georgetown University Round Table
 Some unexpected consequences of the Input Hypothesis
Catherine E. Snow, Harvard University
Learning from input in L1 and L2

Item #2208 (16 Apr 1993 09:33) - 4.280 FYI: Tagger code available, bibliographical database
 Conrad F. Sabourin sabourco@ere.umontreal.ca
P.O. Box 187, Snowdon
Montreal, Qc, H3X 3T4

Item #2398 (15 Jun 1993 22:24) - 4.468 Just for fun: Meteorological linguistics
Spittin' Snow
There are several key phrases and terms that are commonly
nature provides us with a condition of light, intermittent wet
snowfall that is never too awful abundant. When this condition
exists, it is said to be "spitting, or spittin' snow". Spitting
snow is a relatively new term, not appearing in the midwestern
weather vernacular until the early 1920's. Its appearance
term may be derived by metaphor as a result of how this type of
snow appears on the autos windshield. When this term became
popular, another, older term for the same condition - "chippin'
snow" fell out of use. In using this term, it would be correct say,
"I don't mind driving when it's just spittin' a little, but you
won't see me out there if it gets any worse." Spitting is a term
that is to only be used when discussing snow. The worst context
that you could use this term in however would be during a light
In the springtime when this same condition exists, it no
longer is spitting snow, rather it is "trying to rain." To use
"spittin' snow" in April or May is paramount to "Spittin' rain",
which, as you know, is wholly unacceptable. The reason behind this

Item #2498 (26 Jul 1993 08:26) - 4.567 Qs: Compounds, Russian, ARTFL, Mandarin
 magpies or red-winged finches called _sneguri_ -- a name derived
from on of the dozens of Russian words relating to snow.

Well, it's been a long time, but I studied Russian for a number of
years, and the only word relating to snow that I ever encountered was
_sneg_ (along with a coue of clearly related forms like _snez^nyj_.
dictionary. Did I miss something important, or are we seeing here
an incipient myth comparable to the one about Eskimo words for snow?

Item #2645 (15 Sep 1993 13:15) - 4.705 OK
 citations (at least, I think we do, or is this yet another cruel hoax a la 400
Eskimo words for snow?). Also, were phrases like "All Correct" common for that
time period? It seems forced, not natural, English to my ears (but then, slang

Item #2857 (6 Nov 1993 20:09) - 4.925 Qs: Cook, Huff, Pay for informants, Borsley, Myth
 language that could be cited in print? I mean the sort of thing
that includes Eskimo snow words, the "fact" that African languages
have no abstract terms and only a few hundred words, or that

Item #3403 (25 Mar 1994 08:18) - 5.533 New Books: Ling Theory, Formal and Computational Ling
 1994, 492p, ISBN=2-921173-01-8 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

Item #3501 (20 Apr 1994 06:37) - 5.453 Sum: Medical dictionaries and texts
 1994, 492p, ISBN=2-921173-01-8 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1029p, ISBN=2-921173-02-6,2-921173-03-4 prepaid US$ 150
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1031p, ISBN=2-921173-04-2,2-921173-05-0 prepaid US$ 150
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 657p, ISBN=2-921173-06-9 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 649p, ISBN=2-921173-07-7 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 847p, ISBN=2-921173-08-5,2-921173-09-3 prepaid US$ 130
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1168p, ISBN=2-921173-10-7,2-921173-11-5 prepaid US$ 180
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 581p ISBN=2-921173-12-3 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1066p, ISBN=2-921173-13-1,2-921173-14-X prepaid US$ 150
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 862p, ISBN=2-921173-15-8,2-921173-16-6 prepaid US$ 130
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 551p, ISBN=2-921173-17-4 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 580p, ISBN=2-921173-18-2 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 508p, ISBN=2-921173-19-0 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 612p, ISBN=2-921173-20-4 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1187p, ISBN=2-921173-21-2,2-921173-22-0 prepaid US$ 150
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 2 volumes, 1047p, ISBN=2-921173-23-9,2-921173-24-7 prepaid US$ 150
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

1994, 512p, ISBN=2-921173-25-5 prepaid US$ 80
INFOLINGUA inc., P.O. Box 187 Snowdon, Montreal, Canada, H3X 3T4

Payable to : INFOLINGUA inc.
P.O. Box 187 Snowdon
Montreal, Qc, H3X 3T4

Item #3514 (21 Apr 1994 16:00) - 5.466 Sum: Numeral Classifiers
 classifier may be omitted, for example, "bai-xue gong-zhu ji qi
ai-ren" (the Snow White and the seven dwarfs). In the Southern
Min dialects of Chinese, where one character usually can have two

Item #3563 (4 May 1994 06:47) - 5.515 Varia: Cognitive, Flat earth, Bubba
Will Nichols succeed in snowing the editor of Scientific American?
I think yes, very likely. It's all the current rage: the Great Mother

Item #3583 (9 May 1994 08:08) - 5.535 Varia: Signs, Note on "shtreet" dialects, Flat earth
 >
> Will Nichols succeed in snowing the editor of Scientific American?
> I think yes, very likely. It's all the current rage: the Great Mother

Item #3791 (26 Jun 1994 07:49) - 5.742 Sum: Bibliographical Software
 terms. For example, if you tell Orbis once that hail, sleet,
snow, rain, thunder... are linked as 'weather', a 'weather'
search will find all occurrences of each of the list, and keep

Item #3807 (29 Jun 1994 05:34) - 5.758 Popularization of linguistics
 have only 300 words" or "some languages don't have grammar" or "Eskimos have
100+ words for snow"; and rebutting these myths is a worthy activity.

Item #3808 (29 Jun 1994 05:39) - 5.759 Kurdish protest, linguistic human rights violations
 The following message is being forwarded from the ETHNO list,
where it was posted by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas <TOVESK@SNOW.RUC.DK>.
Please direct all your comments, etc. to the above address.
please send an E-mail message to Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, address
TOVESK@SNOW.RUC.DK) or Shelley Taylor (address
SKTAYLOR@OISE.ON.CA), stating

Item #3904 (29 Jul 1994 17:57) - 5.855 Sum: Linguists vs normals
 judgements and to be more successful in operations.
(Contrast Snow and Meijer's finding that linguists are
more consistent!)

Snow, C, and Meijer, G. (1977) On the secondary nature of
syntactic intuitions. In Greenbaum 1977, 163-177.

Item #3920 (4 Aug 1994 10:40) - 5.870 Calls: AAAL, Canadian Speech-Language Pathologists
 Instruction: Secondary ESL and FL (organizers: Marguerite Ann
Snow, Marjorie Wesche, and Diane Musumeci) A call for papers has
also been issued, inviting abstracts for individual papers,

Item #3965 (25 Aug 1994 13:22) - 5.917 Sum: Factors in personality traits
 find factor analysis of ratings of all kind of different objects (from
concrete inanimate objects as "knife" and "snow" to abstract objects
like "sin" and "symphony", as well as animate objects like "me",

Item #4250 (29 Oct 1994 23:22) - 5.1197 Some folk etymologies, folk fact; terminological confusions
 which are revealed by these examples (even if none is as serious or
as amusing as the Eskimo snow words hoax).

Item #4255 (30 Oct 1994 23:12) - 5.1202 Folk etymologies
 exposed by Geoff Pullum is one case in question (that was the widely held
belief that Eskimo has 100 different words for snow). One could add the
connected belief that Greenlandic has an unusual abundance of complex

Item #4265 (1 Nov 1994 13:25) - 5.1212 Qs: Passive/Ergative, X-rays/acoustic signals, Chinese, Kwaiisu
P.S.: I travel by motorcycle. Any one know how deep the snow gets between
Barstow, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico on I-40? Do I need to worry
about snow at all yet? Alternative routes might include I-10 from San
Bernardino, California to (almost) El Paso, Texas, then I-25 north to
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua (El Paso, Texas, US), then north on I-25. Any
suggestions? (They don't make snow chains for motorcycles.)

Item #4284 (4 Nov 1994 13:18) - 5.1231 Qs: Tagalog, Unaccusative langs, Analytic/synthetic, Eskimo
 From: David Prager Branner <charmii@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Help: Eskimo words for snow

From: David Prager Branner <charmii@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Help: Eskimo words for snow

There is talk again on the Linguist list about the "great Eskimo snow
hoax".
to be specialists in Eskimo languages. 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.

Item #4292 (6 Nov 1994 01:31) - 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"


Subject: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"

From: GOLLAV@axe.humboldt.edu
Subject: Eskimo snow

From: amr@ares.cs.wayne.edu
Subject: Re: Eskimo "snow"

From: acw@mail.utexas.edu (Tony Woodbury)
Subject: 'Snow' lexemes in Yup'ik

From: GOLLAV@axe.humboldt.edu
Subject: Eskimo snow


> There is talk again on the Linguist list about the "great Eskimo snow
> hoax". I may be imagining things, but the people who talk about this
> never seem to be specialists in Eskimo languages. I would like to hear
> from an Inuit or Tlingit specialist on just what the snow situation
> really is in these languages....
a couple of dozen if you are fairly liberal about what you count) for
referring to snow and to related natural phenomena, events, or behavior."

From: amr@ares.cs.wayne.edu
Subject: Re: Eskimo "snow"

In response to David Branner, the point about Eskimo snow words
was NOT that there are supposed to be ways of describing various
kinds of snow if one wants to BUT that there is supposedly (acc.
to the myth-makers) a large number of distinct words with NO cover
terms corresponding to our 'snow'. So the example of English having
lots of words for kinds of boats is not apposite because we also
and so on. IN THIS SENSE, West Greenlandic anyway has two words,
one meaning 'falling snow', the other 'fallen snow', which is exactly
the same as the situation in Classical Greek !!!!!
From: acw@mail.utexas.edu (Tony Woodbury)
Subject: 'Snow' lexemes in Yup'ik


>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.
started getting quite a number of inquiries from journalists about "words
for 'snow' in Eskimo." That motivated me to prepare the appended item.
Please feel free to pass it around.

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]

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
while each verb lexeme may have over 1000! Obviously, that would put the
number of snow words through the roof very quickly.


(a) Are all fifteen lexeme meanings really 'snow'-meanings? That is,
do words with these meanings really count for you as words for snow?[2]


A. Snow particles

(1) Snowflake
qanuk 'snowflake'
qanir- 'to snow'
qanunge- 'to snow' [NUN]
qanugglir- 'to snow' [NUN]


(3) Fine snow/rain particles
kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles
kanevcir- to get fine snow/rain particles

(4) Drifting particles
natquik 'drifting snow/etc'
natqu(v)igte- 'for snow/etc. to drift along ground'

nevluk 'clinging debris/
nevlugte- 'have clinging debris/...'lint/snow/dirt...'

B. Fallen snow

(6) Fallen snow on the ground
aniu [NS] 'snow on ground'
aniu- [NS] 'get snow on ground'
apun [NS] 'snow on ground'
qanikcaq 'snow on ground'
qanikcir- 'get snow on ground'

(7) Soft, deep fallen snow on the ground
muruaneq 'soft 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 'snow floating on water'

C. Snow formations

(11) Snow bank
qengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC]

(12) Snow block
utvak 'snow carved in block'

(13) Snow cornice
navcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse'
navcite- 'get caught in an avalanche'

(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'

APPENDIX: An unordered list of English snow lexemes

blizzard
blowing snow
dusting
sleet
slushsnow
snow bank
snow cornice
snow fort
snow house
snow man
snow-mixed-with-rain?
snowflake
snowstorm
others?
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

Item #4297 (7 Nov 1994 19:59) - 5.1244 Qs: Corpus linguistics, Core readings,"snow", L2
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1244 Qs: Corpus linguistics, Core readings,"snow", L2


Subject: 5.1244 Qs: Corpus linguistics, Core readings,"snow", L2

From: LROSENWALD@wellesley.edu
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow" and research questions

From: LROSENWALD@wellesley.edu
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow" and research questions

connection with this point [about how words order, and don't merely
reflect, the natural world] that discussion of Eskimo words for snow
first arose (in the writings of two major 20th Century anthropological
detached from an examination of how speakers use the lexicon? Suppose,
for instance, that in one language there are n words for kinds of snow,
but that by and large people don't use them - meteorologists and hunters
and skiers do, but by and large people just call the stuff "snow" and
add some adjectives? Suppose, then, that in another language there
are also n words for snow, but that in this language by and large people
use them all, in preference to less specific terms? Wouldn't that

Item #4299 (7 Nov 1994 20:15) - 5.1246 Qs: "Snow", Software, Clitic reduplication, Cues of emotions
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1246 Qs: "Snow", Software, Clitic reduplication,
Cues of emotions

Subject: 5.1246 Qs: "Snow", Software, Clitic reduplication, Cues of emotions

From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" <MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"

From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" <MORGAN@LOYOLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"

The returned discussion of "snow" in Eskimo has brought my
thoughts around to a related issue which I do not recall having

Item #4304 (7 Nov 1994 23:30) - 5.1251 Sum: "typewriter" and Canadian raising
It may not be as glamorous as the Eskimo snow word myth, but there
it is.

Item #4305 (7 Nov 1994 23:36) - 5.1252 Eskimo "snow"
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1252 Eskimo "snow"


Subject: 5.1252 Eskimo "snow"

From: STEYNJ@alpha.unisa.ac.za
Subject: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow": fun and fact (Reply)

From: "George Fowler h(317)726-1482 o(812)855-2829" <GFOWLER@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Snow and ICE!!

From: STEYNJ@alpha.unisa.ac.za
Subject: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow": fun and fact (Reply)

_________________________
All of a sudden Eskimo snow talk is in fashion again and references are
made to Pullam's "unveiling" of the great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. That

My conclusion about the present Eskimo snow conversations is that some
linguists cannot distinguish between fun and fact; and those who take
From: "George Fowler h(317)726-1482 o(812)855-2829" <GFOWLER@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Snow and ICE!!

Item #4312 (9 Nov 1994 00:00) - 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"


Subject: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"

From: DOGLICK@vaxsar.vassar.edu (Douglas J. Glick)
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"

From: JANEHH@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Eskimo snow

From: DOGLICK@vaxsar.vassar.edu (Douglas J. Glick)
Subject: Re: 5.1239 Eskimo "snow"

ENGLISH (simple isolated morphemes)
1. snow
2. slush
4. flurry
5. avalanche (*clearly, as Tony notes in general, going beyond just snow)
6. frost (*and I don't think that most English speakers' definition here
would make reference to a particular state of snow here)

vs.(the following list, wherein whether or not one accepts that are solely
about snow or not, are clearly complex constructions):

snowflake
fine snow/rain particles
hardpack
ice lens
(snow) powder
snow bank
snow cornice
snow fort
snow house
snow man
snow-mixed-with-rain?
snowstorm

ESKIMO
1. qanuk 'snowflake'
2. kaneq 'frost'
3. kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles
4. natquik 'drifting snow/etc'
5. nevluk 'clinging debris/. . . snow, etc.
6. aniu [NS] 'snow on ground'
7. muruaneq 'soft deep snow'
8. qetrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust'
9. nutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC]
10. qanisqineq 'snow floating on water'
11. qengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC]
12. utvak 'snow carved in block'
13. navcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse'
14. pirta 'blizzard, snowstorm'

From: JANEHH@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Eskimo snow

The comments on the Eskimo words for snow look like they are
beginning to reproduce the original problem -- namely, bibliographical
irresponsibility in the part of scholars who ought to know better.
The "unveiling of the scandal" of the Eskimo words for snow was NOT
done by Geoffrey Pullum. In his very delightful book with the
the American Anthropological Association back about 1982 or so.
Her paper is "Eskimo words for snow": a case study in the
genesis and decay of an anthropological example. AMERICAN

Item #4329 (12 Nov 1994 06:15) - 5.1276 Eskimo "snow"
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1276 Eskimo "snow"


Subject: 5.1276 Eskimo "snow"

From: hartmut@ruc.dk (Hartmut Haberland)
Subject: Boas on "water" in English and "snow" in Eskimo

From: ggale@VAX1.UMKC.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"

From: acw@mail.utexas.edu (Tony Woodbury)
Subject: Eskimo 'snow'

From: karchung@ccms.ntu.edu.tw (Karen S. Chung)
Subject: Whorf on snow

From: pullum@cats.ucsc.edu (Geoffrey K. Pullum)
Subject: Eskimo "snow"

From: Jonathan David Bobaljik <jdbobalj@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"

From: hartmut@ruc.dk (Hartmut Haberland)
Subject: Boas on "water" in English and "snow" in Eskimo

Did anybody ever bother to look up what Boas wrote about snow in Eskimo?

term.
Another example of the same kind, the words for SNOW in Eskimo, may be
given. Here we find one word, _apput_, expressing SNOW ON THE GROUND;
another one, _qana_, FALLING SNOW,; a third one, _piqsirpoq_, DRIFTING SNOW,
and a fourth one, _qimuqsuq_, A SNOWDRIFT."
(Franz Boas, Introduction. In: Handbook of American Indian Langauges, Part
From: ggale@VAX1.UMKC.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"


which are: 1) forms of water falling out of the sky along with 'snow';

From: acw@mail.utexas.edu (Tony Woodbury)
Subject: Eskimo 'snow'

>the claim that the Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo language has about a dozen
>words...for referring to snow and to related natural phenomena, events, or
>behavior."
>(the following list, wherein whether or not one accepts that are solely
>about snow or not, are clearly complex constructions):
>
>snowflake
>fine snow/rain particles
>hardpack
>ice lens
>(snow) powder
>snow bank
>snow cornice
>snow fort
>snow house
>snow man
>snow-mixed-with-rain?
>snowstorm


ETYMOLOGICAL LISTING OF SOME YUP'IK 'SNOW' TERMS (from a 1987 lecture
handout of mine)
anigu-
aniu- N,V [NS] snow on ground, to snow (<PY *anigu)
apute-
apute- N [NS] snow on ground (< Inupiaq?)
cella- 'weather, cosmos'
cellallir- V [NS] snow heavily; [--] rain (<+llug- 'funky', --lir-
'provide')
cellarrlir- V [NS] snow heavily (<+rrlug- 'funky', --lir-)
kaner-
kanve- 'scatter particles' (partial metathesis of kaime- '(same)')
kanevvlug- N light snow or rain (sprinkle) (-llug- 'funky')
kanevcir- V for air to have tiny ice crystals (+tar- 'leavings', --lir-
muru- 'to sink into sth.'
muruaner- N soft deep snow (+a- 'habitually', -ner- 'result of' (but here:
'means for'))
nater- 'floor, ground, bottom'
natquig- N drifting snow, sand, etc. (-qu- '?' +vig- 'place for', anomalous
v-loss)
natquigte- V 'for snow etc. to drift along ground' (+te- 'do')
natquvigte- [HBC] V '(same)'
navte- 'to collapse' (attested as such in NUN only)
navcar- N [NSU] snow cornice (snow ready to avalanche) (<+yar- '?')
navcite- V [NSU] get caught in an avalanche (--lite- 'to encounter N
nutar- 'new'
nutaryug- N [HBC] fresh snow (+yug- 'what tends to be')
pi- 'do; thing' (etymology questionable)
pirte- N snowstorm, blizzard (? < +rte- 'cause to do')
pirtug- N snowstorm, blizzard (? < +lug- 'funky')
pircir- V to be blizzarding (--lir- provide)
qanug-
qanug- N snowflake
qanir- V to snow (--lir- provide)
qanikcar- N 'snow on ground' (-kcar- 'result')
qanikcir- N 'for ground to get snow covered; to cover with snow'
(--lir- 'provide')
qanisqiner- N 'snow floating on water' (-sqi(r)- '?', -ner- 'result')
qanunge- [NUN] V to snow (-nge- 'get')
qanugglir- [NUN] V to snow (<-rrlug- 'funky', --lir- 'provide')
qengar- 'nose'
qengarug- [Y, HBC] N snow bank (-rug- 'fat')
qetrar-
qetrar- V for snow to crust (incl. NUN, HBC)
qerretrar- V [NSU] for snow to crust (metathesis)
ute- ??
utvag- N snow carved in block (<+vag- 'big')

From: karchung@ccms.ntu.edu.tw (Karen S. Chung)
Subject: Whorf on snow

that started the whole thing in the first place?) the Eskimo-words-
for-snow thread, for everybody's reference. It's from Carroll, John
B., ed. 1956; 1988. _Language, thought and reality: selected writings
(FC-B). This class seems to us too large and inclusive, but
so would our class 'snow' to an Eskimo. We have the same
word for falling snow, snow on the ground, snow packed
hard like ice, slushy snow, wind-driven flying snow -
whatever the situation may be. To an Eskimo, this all-
inclusive word would be almost unthinkable; he would say
that falling snow, slushy snow, and so on, are
sensuously and operationally different, different
things to contend with; he uses different words for
them and for other kinds of snow. The Aztecs go even
farther than we in the opposite direction, with 'cold',
'ice', and 'snow' all represented by the same basic
word with different terminations; 'ice' is the noun
form; 'cold,' the adjectival form; and for 'snow',
"ice mist."
From: pullum@cats.ucsc.edu (Geoffrey K. Pullum)
Subject: Eskimo "snow"

My name has been mentioned a few times during the recent snow flurries.
Some occurrences of it were even spelled correctly. And I agreed with
"The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax" as having refuted Whorfianism or
settled the number of Inuit snow terms or anything of this sort.
(Steyn seems to understand that one of the main aims of that essay was
This claim is vague to the point of vacuity, of course, but bear with
me. An old hand at hunting for Eskimo Words For Snow citations will
have a sinking feeling in the stomach already by this stage; it is

While Eskimos have four different root words for snow, ...
English speakers have only the lonely word "snow".

his "Language and Thought" section; he does not say that the four words
are roots; one of his forms is not a word for a type of snow but a
count noun stem for which his gloss is "a snowdrift"; and another is
wrongly glossed "falling snow" when it is really another count noun
stem meaning "snowflake"). They then state a patent falsehood about
English (recall, English has "snow", "slush", "sleet", "blizzard",
"avalanche", and lots of other snowy words) that is noted in my essay
as a falsehood. And then they cite me as one of their sources! It's
From: Jonathan David Bobaljik <jdbobalj@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: 5.1259 Eskimo "snow"

Douglas Glick has astutely pointed out that Tony Woodbury's list of
snow words in English involves a number of complex constructions, some
of which have the word for snow in them, and suggests that they
therefore be excluded from the count of valid sonw words, even if they
refer more or less exclusively to snow:

> (the following list, wherein whether or not one accepts that are solely
> about snow or not, are clearly complex constructions):

I'm willing to accept this for the sake of the argument, though with
some reservation. For instance, a "snowball" [not in Tony's list],
cannot be used to refer to just any ball of snow -i.e. it's meaning is
not strictly compositional in the way that a "snow fort" is (for me).
Similarly, "cornsnow" has absolutely nothing to do with "corn". But
we'll accept that we can't use complex constructions for the point to
ENGLISH (simple isolated morphemes)
1. snow
2. slush
4. flurry
5. avalanche (*clearly, as Tony notes in general, going beyond just snow)
6. frost (*and I don't think that most English speakers' definition here
would make reference to a particular state of snow here)


9. cornice [Tony has "snow cornice" which is not in my dialect /
idiolect. A "cornice" has only one meaning for me, and
that meaning is a crust of overhanging snow on a ridge]

??: drift. A "drift", in my dialect/idiolect can *only* mean a big
pile of snow deposited by the wind.

We could then argue until the cows come home about things like
"powder". I don't use the complex construction "powder snow", only
the word "powder" with a very specific, narrow meaning, or "banK"
which means something very different when applied to snow and buildings.


1. qanuk 'snowflake'
2. kaneq 'frost'
3. kanevvluk 'fine snow/rain particles
4. natquik 'drifting snow/etc'
5. nevluk 'clinging debris/. . . snow, etc.
6. aniu [NS] 'snow on ground'
7. muruaneq 'soft deep snow'
8. qetrar- [NSU] 'for snow to crust'
9. nutaryuk 'fresh snow' [HBC]
10. qanisqineq 'snow floating on water'
11. qengaruk 'snow bank' [Y, HBC]
12. utvak 'snow carved in block'
13. navcaq [NSU] 'snow cornice, snow (formation) about to collapse'
14. pirta 'blizzard, snowstorm'

7)
# 1 and 10 are from the same root: qanir- "to snow" (this was one of
the verbs in Tony's list)
# 6, which occurs in only one dialect, *might* be from the same root,
at least historically. The verb "to snow" in the dialect
with "aniu" for snow on ground has "anir-" in stead of
qanir- "to snow".

# 3 is derived from the verb kanve- meaning "to sprinkle out".
And is not limited to snow
Hence, we talk in English (at least where I come from
# 4 natquik, cf. nateq "floor", and verb stem meaning: to drift
along the floor. The verb is not used solely of snow...

#9 and #11, making nouns from verbs.
Even the word doesn't mean only snow in the list given...

14)
# 7 muruaneq < muru- "to sink into, eg soft deep snow"
If you take this, then you'll have to take "sinkhole" in
# 8 qetrar - fair enough. The actual quote from the dictionary is:
"to form a hard snow crust during a cold spring night preceded
by a warm day" OK. That's a verb we certainly don't have a
18)
# 11 literally means "big nose" though is used to refer to snowbanks.
"from their shape" (Jacobsen). snowball, fort, ...

21)
# 14 pirta = blizzarb, snowstorm. Fair enough.

So, the new count of exclusively snow-related simple roots:

would increase the Yup'ik count, since we may want to include "big
nose" with the meaning "snow bank", and perhaps some of the deverbal
forms where they generally are restricted to snow even if the verb is
not so restricted. Of course, this would mean increasing the English
list to include not-so-transparent compunds like: (snow) bank,
snowball, and others.

different colours than I would ever hope to have. As a skier and
climber, having grown up somewhere where I shovelled snow as often as
I cut the lawn, I probably have more terms for snow and ice and things
cold than some other English speaker who has had minimal contact with
snow outside of their freezer. The conclusion, which I think Pullum
drew from this, is that such a fact is only interesting when we

Item #4346 (13 Nov 1994 17:29) - 5.1293 Words for snow in Eskimo and English Lgs
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1293 Words for snow in Eskimo and English Lgs


Subject: 5.1293 Words for snow in Eskimo and English Lgs

From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Eskimo words for "snow", "ice", etc.

From: amr@jupiter.cs.wayne.edu
Subject: Eskimo snow in context

From: David Prager Branner <charmii@u.washington.edu>
Subject: English snow words

From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Eskimo words for "snow", "ice", etc.

responses: one to the person who suggested that maybe what was
peculiar about Eskimo words for snow is not the number of lexical items
to be found in a dictionary, but rather that these words are used more
by mistake. But this is an interesting idea. My answer is that
Eskimos talk about snow about as often as a Sahara Tuareg would talk
about rain, in other words, not very often. Remember that the Arctic
is technically a desert; i.e. there is very little precipitation,
although whatever snow that does fall remains on the ground, an~rd is
blown a}iround into funny shapes, for which there is of course, a
technical terminology, used mainly by huntersd who need to use these
things as landmarks. Snow (as a ground cover or falling) is really not
very important to Eskimos. I suggest that we start looking at some of
the languages of the Subarctic groups of Canada (Cree, Chipewyan), these
people live in deep snow, and probably talk about it a lot more!
My second response is for George Fowler who suggest that there might be
movements. For Eskimo hunters, these things are concretely a matter of
life and death. So Eskimos do have many words for ice, and as for snow,
this is a technical terminology, and as for snow, it is entirely based
on a few stems that actually mean "ice", and on many stems that do not
such as Cnetral Siberian Yupik Eskimo, there are actually more
expressions (or if you want "words") for "ice" than for "snow".
For the definition of a "word" and "stem" in Eskimo, I refer y'all
From: amr@jupiter.cs.wayne.edu
Subject: Eskimo snow in context

As the quotation from Whorf shows, he was concerned with the issue
of whether there is a general term like 'snow' in Eskimo languages,
not with whether Eskimo (or English) have a multitude of specialized
types or kinds. And in this context the only question is whether
the Eskimo languages have one word for 'snow' like English or two
like Ancient Greek or whether they only have a variety of more
particular words for kinds of snow.

From: David Prager Branner <charmii@u.washington.edu>
Subject: English snow words

Jonathan David Bobaljik posted a message to Vol. 5-1276 of this list in
which he discusses the various Yup'ik words for snow that have been
contributed by Anthony Woodbury. For the sake of comparison he has a list
of 9 or 10 English words for snow and snow-like things. I thought it
would be useful to find out whether each of these English words means
_primarily_ snow or whether the snow sense is derived, figurative, or
otherwise secondary. I have consulted the various editions of the Oxford

1. snow: A good English word with a respectable pedigree. Means
primarily snow.


4. avalanche: This word seems to have referred to snow avalanches from
the beginning.
5. blizzard: The first edition of the OED says, "A modern word. ... As
applied to a 'snow-squall,' the word became general in the American
newspapers during the severe winter of 1880-81; but according to the
1. cornice: This is really an architectural term, meaning the "crown" on
a building. Its use to refer to a type of snow formation is merely
figurative.

3. drift: With the meaning 'snow-drift' this word is attested c. 1300,
("This castel..quitter es pan snau drif[t].") but it clearly has too many
what someone is saying." Drift is related to "to drive". Compare
Bobaljik's discussion of Yup'ik _natquik_ 'drifting snow'.

4. flurry: This word means primarily 'gust' or 'squall'. Washington
Irving is cited in 1836 talking about "flurries of snow", but there are
other cases of flurries of rain, birds. Conclusion: not primarily a snow
word.

5. sinkhole: Bobaljik rejects _muruaneq_ 'soft, deep snow', offering
"sinkhole" as roughly comparable (and presumably also unacceptable).
depression in which liquid collects, especially in the ground. I do not
think it has anything to do with snow per se.

1. frost: I have left "frost" out of the English list, since it has more
to do with frozen dew and ice than with snow. I have also omitted "rime"
and "hoarfrost" ("hoar" is figurative for old age). Accordingly, I urge

My count is 5 good English words whose primary meanings are snow or forms
of snow. Bobaljik also allows only 5 "exclusively snow-related simple
roots" in Yup'ik (excluding "frost" as explained above).
I am not a specialist in English etymology, but I am experienced at using
the OED. Is _muruaneq_ 'soft, deep snow' really not a purely snow word,
as Bobaljik says? I would also like to know what "Eskimo" languages there
are other than Yup'ik for which snow-words are recorded in detail.

Item #4375 (19 Nov 1994 12:08) - 5.1318 Calls: Lat. Amer. Indian Lit., Spanish for Native Speakers, NLP
 Language Engineering" (M5675@ie.eurokom), nl-kr@com.sunnyside.ai,
empiricists@csli.stanford.edu, ectl-sub@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca,
corpora@hd.uib.no, jqrqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu, salt@cstr.ed.ac.uk

Item #4379 (19 Nov 1994 13:34) - 5.1322 Sapir-Whorf
 From: DOGLICK@vaxsar.vassar.edu (Douglas J. Glick)
Subject: Re: "snow" 1/2

From: DOGLICK@vaxsar.vassar.edu (Douglas J. Glick)
Subject: Re: "snow" 1/2

About snow . . .


Third, as to the question of whether or not sleet is related to snow. I
don't agree. It is, I agree, related (and would be defined in relation to)
water, but (at least I and a few other students that I asked) wouldn't
define it as a form of snow (ditto for freezing rain).

only four 'arbitrary and unmotivated' forms that deal specifically with
'snow' (i.e., snow, slush, blizzard, flurry). I'll leave it to others to
decide whether or not various dialects of Eskimo have more or less, but

Item #4392 (21 Nov 1994 09:15) - 5.1335 Sum: Concepts unknown in Dutch
 quarterback rumble strips scrum shopping mall sitcom
snow blower submarine sandwich subway token succotash
summer squash summercamp tabloid to relish

Item #4414 (25 Nov 1994 19:26) - 5.1358 Words for snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1358 Words for snow


Subject: 5.1358 Words for snow

From: i52023@sakura.kudpc.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Subject: Snow 3 1/2

From: i52023@sakura.kudpc.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Subject: Snow 3 1/2


I've been following the discussion about snowy words here and elsewhere
for some time now, and I can't but disagree with Douglas J. Glick (see

Whereas English [...] has only one word for _snow_ (or two if
we include _sleet_), Eskimo has several.
Neuschnee, Harsch, Waechte, Lawine, Loipe, Hagel, Graupel, and for
English, snow, snow (bank, fort, house, man, -mixed-with-rain, -flake, -
storm), slush(snow), (snow)cornice, avalanche, blizzard, dusting,
flurry, frost, hail, hardpack, igloo, pingo, powder, sleet.
In these lists, I'm including some at least seemingly semantically
transparent compounds like Neuschnee (`new+snow'), Schneeregen
snow+rain') and so on, as well as some words that are only frosty and
not very snowy, as well as some that have only to do with snow and
nothing else. In a serious collection, the data should be much richer,

Granted not everything white in the listings given is snow, how can we
comment on the quotation above? At least, the writer should have told the
reader why so many snowy words of English do not count as snow, or,
perhaps, that Eskimo in his opinion has no cover term, where English
Two, I don't really get the point in excluding words like cornice
from a snowy list. Now if there are people out there who use the word
primarily to denote some sort of snow formation and feel the word is in
its *architectural* meaning of rather metaphorical nature, what's the
Back to German again, Flocke to me primarily denotes not `something
flaky' but rather precisely `a snowflake', and all other usages seem
to be derived from that. Harsch seems to be connected with harsch
`harsh'; but used as a noun, what other denotation but that kind of
slighly melted and frozen snow does it have? Loipe is the kind of
tracks skiers use in their discipline and, I guess, not a `very German'
down on adopted children. Anyway, there seems to be a need for that
word. It's snowy, very specialized, and, for my feeling, totally
unconnected with any other word in German.
going on. If there's someone with a lot of Waechten and cornices
and flakes on his mind, but with no connection to other non-snowy words
for him, this is a fact of that ideolect. Of course, as soon some
Finally, I would like to point out that apart from some pretty
specialized words having to do woth snow, rain is another phenomenon
languages may have more or less to say about. In German, for example,

Item #4432 (2 Dec 1994 18:08) - 5.1375 FYI: Home page, Video Update, GLS'95 on WWW, Poem, CALL Reports
 From: maire ni chiosain (MAIRENIC@IRLEARN.UCD.IE)
Subject: Poem (Re: 5.1276 Eskimo "snow")

From: maire ni chiosain (MAIRENIC@IRLEARN.UCD.IE)
Subject: Poem (Re: 5.1276 Eskimo "snow")

Item #4439 (4 Dec 1994 15:43) - 5.1382 Words for snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1382 Words for snow


Subject: 5.1382 Words for snow

From: maire ni chiosain (MAIRENIC@IRLEARN.UCD.IE)
Subject: eskimo words for snow

From: r.f.vatvedt@inl.uio.no (Ruth Fjeld Vatvedt)
Subject: Re: 5.1358 Words for snow

From: maire ni chiosain (MAIRENIC@IRLEARN.UCD.IE)
Subject: eskimo words for snow

From: r.f.vatvedt@inl.uio.no (Ruth Fjeld Vatvedt)
Subject: Re: 5.1358 Words for snow

Item #4458 (7 Dec 1994 13:50) - 5.1401 Sum: Snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1401 Sum: Snow


Subject: 5.1401 Sum: Snow

From: David Prager Branner (charmii@u.washington.edu)
Subject: Pseudo-summary: Eskimo Snow

From: John Nerbonne (nerbonne@let.rug.nl)
Subject: Re: 5.1382 Words for snow

From: David Prager Branner (charmii@u.washington.edu)
Subject: Pseudo-summary: Eskimo Snow

Several weeks ago I posted a query to this list about the controversy over
Eskimo words for snow. The response gladdens me. There seem to be at
least three different matters involved:
1) Folklorization: the American public at large seems to have
taken to the idea that there are a myriad Eskimo snow words.

2) The number of real words that real Eskimo languages actually
have for different kinds of snow. In addition, the ways these languages
break up our concept "snow" into different concepts.

by Geoffrey Pullum. Pullum writes to debunk the belief that Eskimo has
dozens or even hundreds of words for snow, and he documents examples in
the non-specialist press. But I have the feeling that his conclusion has
folklore: there is a growing belief that Eskimo *does not* have a
sophisticated snow vocabulary at all. That does not seem to be quite
right, either.
Whorf himself insisted that he was not just talking about word-counting,
not merely about Eskimo and English having different vocabulary for snow.
His most elaborate examples of linguistic relativism involved Hopi
From: John Nerbonne (nerbonne@let.rug.nl)
Subject: Re: 5.1382 Words for snow

`Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow' by Peter Hoeg, is a passable whodunit
featuring an alienated heroine of mixed Inuit/Danish parentage. It
Miss Smilla is tipped off to foul play in the death of a young boy
because of her ability to read footprints in the snow, an ability
which she ultimately owes to her mother, an Inuit hunter. The trail
eventually leads back to Greenland where one certainly gets the
feeling that words distinguishing different kinds of snow and ice are
a more integral part of vernacular speech. Hoeg uses Inuit words,
confused, at least in the English translation, where {\it qanik} is
glossed 'fine powder snow' (p.102), `snow flurries' (p.452) and `big
flakes' (p.480). (In this case the glosses, taken together, seem to
suggest that English speakers have a more discerning eye for snow!
But that isn't the effect as one reads.) The variety of glosses

Item #4475 (8 Dec 1994 19:12) - 5.1418 Qs: Lexical Data Base,Reference for Dik,IPA, Starting data bank
 problems).
2. Adapting the CHILDES (MacWhinney and Snow) model to suit science
learning, classroom, naturalistic data.

Item #4506 (14 Dec 1994 15:16) - 5.1449 Sapir-Whorf, Words for snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tamsun.tamu.edu>
Subject: 5.1449 Sapir-Whorf, Words for snow


Subject: 5.1449 Sapir-Whorf, Words for snow

From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.1401 Sum: Snow

)From: David Prager Branner (charmii@u.washington.edu)
)Subject: Pseudo-summary: Eskimo Snow
)...
From: WDEREUSE@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: 5.1401 Sum: Snow

impression that it was Pullum that first pointed out to the
scholarly community the strange history of "Eskimo words for snow".
Not so. Read Pullum carefully, and you will know that it is

Item #4507 (14 Dec 1994 15:30) - 5.1450 Comparative Method
 used to be (cf. the discussion of the spread of rumors about
the number of Eskimo words for snow), or that syntax is driving
historical linguistics to pot?]

Item #4570 (8 Jan 1995 16:41) - 6.1 Moderators' message: LINGUIST policies
 we can't be responsible for the accuracy of anyone's claims about the number
of words for "snow." Nor--and this is the problematic area--can we check
claims about anyone's or any institution's decisions, opinions, or conduct.

Item #4581 (12 Jan 1995 14:34) - 6.12 Greek and Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tam2000.tamu.edu>
Subject: 6.12 Greek and Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow


Subject: 6.12 Greek and Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow

From: Dave Wharton (WHARTOND@steffi.uncg.edu)
Subject: Greek & Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow

From: Dave Wharton (WHARTOND@steffi.uncg.edu)
Subject: Greek & Latin verb agreement, Greek words for snow

some time ago the assertion that Ancient Greek has two distinct lexemes for
snow -- one for falling snow, another for fallen snow. Also not true.
Ancient Greek has several words used of snow, but they do not divide the
semantic pie in the way suggested.

Item #4651 (20 Jan 1995 11:07) - 6.82 Fun: Silliness about Eskimo snow
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tam2000.tamu.edu>
Subject: 6.82 Fun: Silliness about Eskimo snow


Subject: 6.82 Fun: Silliness about Eskimo snow

From: geoffn@siu.edu (Geoffrey S. Nathan)
Subject: Silliness about Eskimo snow

From: geoffn@siu.edu (Geoffrey S. Nathan)
Subject: Silliness about Eskimo snow


Snowy landscape

Her poodle: I read somewhere that the Eskimos have 80 [sic] words for
snow.
She: That's nothing.

Snowy landscape with him and his mutt shovelling snow

Item #4677 (25 Jan 1995 21:57) - 6.111 Language and Species
I rather suspect that the claim is like the wilder "Eskimo snow" claims in
that it gets made largely without much thought and without evidence as a

Item #4679 (25 Jan 1995 23:18) - 6.113 Varia: Eskimo snow/Scottish rain, Open letter to _Language_, IPA
 From: The Linguist List <linguist@tam2000.tamu.edu>
Subject: 6.113 Varia: Eskimo snow/Scottish rain,
Open letter to _Language_, IPA

Subject: 6.113 Varia: Eskimo snow/Scottish rain, Open letter to _Language_, IPA

From: caoimhin@sabhal-mor-ostaig.ac.uk (Caoimhin P. ODonnaile)
Subject: Eskimo snow and Scottish rain

From: caoimhin@sabhal-mor-ostaig.ac.uk (Caoimhin P. ODonnaile)
Subject: Eskimo snow and Scottish rain


I don't know about Eskimo words for snow, but Scottish Gaelic has a
special word "turadh" for when it stops raining!

Item #4744 (9 Feb 1995 07:20) - 6.175 Sum: Register in the pre-school age
Beals, D.E. & Snow, C.E. (1994) 'Thunder is when the angels are upstairs
bowling': Narratives and explanations at the dinner table. Journal of

Charles Ferguson (1977). Baby talk as a simplified register. In Snow &
Ferguson (eds.), 'Talking to children.'
kinds of narrative discourse: genres and lines of talk. In J. Sokolov &
C. E. Snow, eds.*Handbook of Research in Language Development Using
CHILDES*, Erlbaum, pp. 286-323

Item #4844 (22 Feb 1995 11:59) - 6.258 Linguistic Human rights (Latvia's language policy)
 Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 13:33:38 +0100
From: "Tove Skutnabb-Kangas" (TOVESK@snow.ruc.dk)
Subject: linguistic human rights violations; Latvia
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 1995 13:33:38 +0100
From: "Tove Skutnabb-Kangas" (TOVESK@snow.ruc.dk)
Subject: linguistic human rights violations; Latvia

Item #4910 (9 Mar 1995 14:32) - 6.347 Rev: The Language of the Gods (Tyberg)
 take one some time to realize that like the Eskimo with his 99
different words for snow, the early users of the Sanskrit language
developed a highly specialized vocabulary to describe the "inner life"
Stephen De Guilio who brought to my notice the common misconception
pertaining to "eskimo" and "snow". He has referred me to a recent
thread on the present list. Since I was not hitherto a member of this

Item #4989 (22 Mar 1995 01:44) - 6.418 Sum: Linguistics in science fiction
Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash.


SNOW CRASH - Neal Stephenson (1992)
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS - Jonathan Swift (1726)

Item #5039 (30 Mar 1995 12:27) - 6.469 Rev: Text and Technology (Baker, Francis, Tognini-Bonelli ed.)
 ostensibly about lambing, focusing on the poem's last line:
"Utterly unlike the snow." He shows from databank evidence
that "utterly" has "an overwhelmingly 'bad' [semantic]
negative semantic prosody to what follows "utterly,"
interpreting "unlike the snow" as the "myriad cruelties of
the world the lambs have just entered." (p. 161).

Item #5079 (5 Apr 1995 09:21) - 6.509 Language policy
 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 15:21:26 +0100
From: "Tove Skutnabb-Kangas" (TOVESK@snow.ruc.dk)
Subject: Latvian Language Policy, from Ina Druviete
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 15:21:26 +0100
From: "Tove Skutnabb-Kangas" (TOVESK@snow.ruc.dk)
Subject: Latvian Language Policy, from Ina Druviete
she wrote some comments. It is possible to contact her on my
email (tovesk@snow.ruc.dk) until mid-June. Here are the comments:

Item #5116 (12 Apr 1995 14:12) - 6.546 Confs: Morphology, syntax and phonology, Formal Ling Society
 Nick's English Hut: 423 E. Kirkwood Ave. 332.40.40
Snow Lion: 1500 E. 3rd St. 336.08.35
Trojan Horse: 100 E. Kirkwood Ave. 332.11.01

Item #5251 (13 May 1995 01:14) - 6.663, Confs: Natural lg processing, Preferred argument structure
 For information contact the UCSB Linguistics Department at
(805) 893 - 3779 (phone) or snowball@humanitas.ucsb.edu
questions? contact lekumpf@csulb.edu

Item #5276 (18 May 1995 00:00) - 6.697, Confs: Folger Institute, FLSM VI
 Nick's English Hut: 423 E. Kirkwood Ave. 332.40.40
Snow Lion: 1500 E. 3rd St. 336.08.35
Trojan Horse: 100 E. Kirkwood Ave. 332.11.01

Item #5384 (12 Jun 1995 02:45) - 6.805, Qs: Tenses & time, Buccalization, Compounds, ASL
 ancient Greek from a source I can't remember, akin to the Great Eskimo
Snow Vocabulary Hoax?!

Item #5416 (22 Jun 1995 13:04) - 6.837, Tolkien's Elvish languages
1. - Losgar (Red Snow). The place where Feanor burned the ships of the
Teleri. los=snow, gar from car = red (Noel 1980:164).
- Sakao kar = red.

Item #5424 (22 Jun 1995 22:21) - 6.845, Language: Books Available for Review
Sokolov, Jeffrey L. and Catherine E. Snow (eds.). Handbook of
research in language development ising CHILDES. Hillsdale, NJ:

Item #5521 (6 Jul 1995 15:07) - 6.942, Sum: Palindromes-3
He won snow, eh?

Item #5625 (3 Aug 1995 20:44) - 6.1045, Sum: Judgment Fatigue: Part II
 >their 'meaning' on repeated presentation. e.g.., repeat the word
>"snow" 20 times and it starts sounding funny. and you can't come up
>with as many semantically associated words like "ice" and "cold").

Item #5692 (17 Aug 1995 09:26) - 6.1112, Qs: Sapir-Whorf, Phrase identification, Yiddish
I know Linguist had extensive conversation about "snow," etc., etc., and
the current status of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I am once again faced with

Item #5761 (30 Aug 1995 12:53) - 6.1181, Sum: Teenage ling
 introductory popular book: design features, signing chimps, men's and
women's language, the universal translator, Eskimo words for `snow', the
history of English, Genie, child language, Sapir-Whorf, and so on. But it

Item #5949 (6 Oct 1995 13:13) - 6.1372, FYI: Online training seminar, PBS series on ling
 That there must be - oh - 300 languages in the world; that there are 32
words for snow in Eskimo; that Natives in Darkest Africa speak in
grunts; that sign language is the same thing worldwide, so why don't we

Item #6001 (14 Oct 1995 17:50) - 6.1424, Disc: Self-censorship
 One last example: the fairly recent discussion about the Eskimo
words for 'snow' we had on LINGUIST, in response I believe to a query
which some of the advocates of censorship, self or otherwise, would

Item #6013 (16 Oct 1995 11:43) - 6.1436, All: Gimcrack (column on the Linguist List)
 the like, as of the agreeable buzz of its chatter. There are the
discussions of Eskimo words for snow, of Estonian language policy, and
linguistics in science fiction. There are the offbeat queries that

Item #6218 (22 Nov 1995 09:41) - 6.1642, Confs: GURT '96, Going Romance '95
Mary Ann Christison, Snow College

Item #6457 (21 Jan 1996 11:50) - 7.90, FYI: LANGUAGE Book Notice List
Sokolov, Jeffrey L. and Catherine E. Snow (eds.). Handbook of
research in language development using CHILDES. Hillsdale, NJ:

Item #6505 (28 Jan 1996 10:13) - 7.138, Confs: European Second Language Association, GURT 96
Mary Ann Christison, Snow College

Item #6599 (13 Feb 1996 08:24) - 7.232, Sum: Women/Language/Humour
Barreca, Regina (1991) They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted:
Women's Strategic Use of Humor. New York: Viking Penguin.

Item #6832 (26 Mar 1996 19:07) - 7.465, FYI: Endangered languages documentation mailbox
 should be encouraged to pass on the news in order to achieve some kind
of snowball effect. Information on paper questionnaires will have to
be transferred to the computer by somebody who does have access to

Item #6890 (10 Apr 1996 09:22) - 7.523, Sum: Un-English segment sequences
 'scraik' "to screech".
[sC1VC2], C1Â Scots 'snewn' "snowed", 'steet', 'stoit', 'stot', 'stut'.
[ClVl] Czech [klel] "he swore", Scots 'blellum'

Item #7233 (10 Jun 1996 17:48) - 7.865, Disc: Equality Among Languages
 Pacific, might be difficult to use in a different geographic region,
say Lappland, where all kinds of words for 'snow' and 'reindeer' and
whatnot would have to be invented or codeswitched into the language.

Item #7252 (13 Jun 1996 14:21) - 7.890, Disc: Equality among languages
 >Pacific, might be difficult to use in a different geographic region,
>say Lappland, where all kinds of words for 'snow' and 'reindeer' and
>whatnot would have to be invented or codeswitched into the language.

Item #7505 (13 Aug 1996 14:12) - 7.1143, FYI: LANGUAGE Book notices list -- August 1996
Ninio, Anat, and Catherine E. Snow. Pragmatic development: Essays
in developmental science. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996. Pp.

Item #7578 (1 Sep 1996 20:33) - 7.1217, Calls: Bilingualism, NLP in Implemented Systems
 Loraine K. Obler, Michel Paradis, Shana Poplack, Steven Pinker, Ben
Rampton, Suzanne Romaine, Dan Slobin, Bernard Spolsky, Catherine Snow

Item #7583 (2 Sep 1996 10:26) - 7.1222, Disc: Sumerian and PIE
 *seuH- "rain, wet" s^eg~ "rain"
*sneghw- "snow" s^eg~ "snow, ice"
*ske-u(H)- [1] "drought, heat" s^eg~ "hot; cook, boil" ?

Item #7646 (14 Sep 1996 20:20) - 7.1285, Sum: Variation in Mod.Std.Arabic pronunciation
 > Arabic_,
> Snow's _Levantine Arabic: Introduction to Pronunciation_, and a
> number of other books and articles that I found less helpful for
Your question which probably seems innocent enough to you is
not easy to answer. Allow me to point out that Snow's book is not
about MSA but about the Levantine dialect. Although it is true

Item #7983 (18 Nov 1996 10:47) - 7.1625, Qs: Myths in linguistics, ITRANS
 The closest in linguistics that everyone would know would probably be
the good old 'words for snow in eskimo' story.

Item #8108 (10 Dec 1996 19:05) - 7.1750, Jobs: Research Position in German Ling, TESOL Job
 FAX: (213) 343-5336
E-mail: sslovac@calstatela.edu or asnow@calstatela.edu

Item #8231 (17 Jan 1997 13:10) - 8.39, Sum: Myths in linguistics
 fair amount of discussion exerpted from the LINGUIST list about
Eskimo 'snow' and German as the national language of the U.S. I
also mention a few more myths and misconceptions and give a

Item #8559 (16 Mar 1997 12:32) - 8.363, Sum: Corpora
 University of Silesia
Sosnowiec
Polad

Item #8623 (28 Mar 1997 15:36) - 8.427, Confs: Emergentist approaches, Celtic teachers
 The emergence of faithfulness in phonological development"
10:00 Catherine Snow - Harvard University: "Social support for language
emergence"

Item #8658 (5 Apr 1997 10:00) - 8.454, Sum: Bibliography on Topic
Ninio, A. and Snow, C. E. (1996) Pragmatic Development. Colorado:
Westvie w Press.

Item #8678 (7 Apr 1997 22:43) - 8.474, Qs: Lexicon, Grammar checker, African lgs
 Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 01:06:51 -0800 (PST)
From: "L. Snow" <lsnow@u.washington.edu>
Subject: size of lexicon
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 01:06:51 -0800 (PST)
From: "L. Snow" <lsnow@u.washington.edu>
Subject: size of lexicon

Laura Snow
lsnow@u.washington.edu

Item #8835 (30 Apr 1997 08:40) - 8.631, Sum: Sociolinguistics/TESL Text
"The Multicultural Classroom." 1992. By P. Richard-Amato & M. Snow

Item #8870 (6 May 1997 19:02) - 8.666, Sum: Hmong
 >Two: some web addresses - a very vital one I thiniik is the HLUG email
>collection page at <snowbin@ix.netcom.com> or <hmoob@sts.net> - you can
>subscribe. Lots of interesting talk about which dialect to standardise,

Item #8875 (7 May 1997 10:59) - 8.671, Review: Trask: The History of Basque
 jazyki' (Chirikba 1985). An undergraduate essay offered to what was
expected to be an obscure volume on ancient Anatolia, it snowballed in
reputation as it was cited over and over by long rangers who sang its

Item #8900 (12 May 1997 09:16) - 8.696, Sum: Punctuation
 about punctuation (LINGUIST List Vol-8-586). I intend to reply to
you all personally, but I'm a bit snowed under at the moment, so
please bear with me and forgive my posting the summary before I can

Item #8923 (14 May 1997 11:49) - 8.719, Sum: Nonce formations in Italian
Antonella Gramone itsaj@snow.csv.warwick.ac.uk
and

Item #9674 (12 Oct 1997 14:07) - 8.1469, Calls: Southasian Lang, Lang & Law
The annual meeting of the Law & Society Ass'n will be at Snowmass
Village, Aspen, Colorado, USA, June 4-7, 1998. The theme is "Making

Item #9937 (2 Dec 1997 11:21) - 8.1732, Calls: Polish Association for Studies of English
 University of Silesia
41-205 Sosnowiec, ul. Zytnia 10, Poland
tel. (0-32) 291-74-17
kotlet@zeus.polsl.gliwice.pl
41-205 Sosnowiec
ul. Zytnia 10
Institute of English
41-205 Sosnowiec .
ul. Zytnia 10

Item #9984 (12 Dec 1997 19:14) - 8.1779, Sum: Critical Period References
 Linguistics, University of Oregon.
Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle (1978) "The Critical Period for Language
Acquisition: Evidence from Second Language Learning".