Posted by Dave Thewlis on May 06, 2007 at 00:23:42 from 64.221.112.114 user dthewlis.
In Reply to: Re: Was Callum Home London - now Inuit words for snow posted by andyb on May 04, 2007 at 12:28:13:
I remember encountering the "40 words for snow" (or however many) a number of years ago while reading upon etymology. I don't really know if the presumptions about language types, etc. are still the same as they were in the early 60s - but at that time, the Innuit language(s) were considered polysynthetic (as opposed to glutinative, inflecting, or positional). My recollection is that in polysynthetic languages, simple words have gradually been absorbed into more complex words which convey "broader" ideas or concepts, rather than the original words being used to construct phrases. Eventually, the original words faded away and only the complex words remained.
The "40 words for snow" was part of an explanation which added that they however had no word for "snow" as a simple label. Instead there was one word for e.g. "snow that gets in the way when I want to brush it off the ice to fish" or "snow that sticks to your clothes instead of brushing off easily" or "snow that packs well to make a wall" (these are my inventions, not actual examples).
An hypothesis advanced by one writer was that this might explain why the Innuit were found to be excellent mechanics even though they hadn't encountered motor vehicles to any extent - their language caused them to see systems of things, rather than discrete separate things.
I'm searching for a good tie to Ransome here...