Posted by andyb on May 04, 2007 at 12:28:13 from 81.131.33.79 user beardbiter.
In Reply to: Was Callum Home London - now Inuit words for snow posted by Robert Thompson on May 04, 2007 at 10:49:35:
Well if we are playing 'Pedants R Us' I think Pinker is a psychologist not a linguist.
I heard this attempt to debunk Boas a while ago. I like a bit of myth exploding as much as the next pedant so I did a bit of checking and found the results satisfyingly inconclusive. According to some counts, (sorry for the weasel words but I haven't time to return to the Google tail right now, the Innuit do have quite a few words (depending as what counts as a word) for snow (depending what counts as 'snow'). For example, in English 'red-wax snow' is either two or three words but in some languages these words (or their equivalents) could be run together into one word. The is "sea-ice" a form of snow? Not in English but may be in an Innuit language (there's more than one). Anyway, as a skier I have potentially hundreds of terms for snow and well over a dozen I use regularly. I think the point that people have words for distinctions which are important to them, 'pull that rope.' 'which one?' and this relates to both their material circumstances and cultural repertoire, still holds.