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Language Myth 1 "Eskimos have over 400 words for snow" |
Article Submitted by: Gordon Rich
Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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This myth is the product of a game of linguistic Chinese Whispers that got out of hand when Benjamin Whorf claimed that, because the Inuit had so many words for snow, they were capable of experiencing snow in a more sensuous and profound way than speakers of any other language. For some reason this erroneous piece of information has stuck in the public imagination and, as Geoffrey Pullum wrote in The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, ‘Once the public has decided to accept something as an interesting fact, it becomes almost impossible to get the acceptance rescinded. The persistent interestingness and symbolic usefulness overrides any lack of factuality.'
There are a number of languages in the Eskimo-Aleut family; rather, there are a number of languages known as ‘Eskimo', and the number of words for snow varies between them, but the Inuit language is most usually associated with this story. In purely numerical terms, the Inuit probably have at most six or seven different words for snow, which is roughly the same as the snow-related vocabulary of, say, expert skiers. Linguistically, the most interesting aspect of Inuit snow terminology is that, for instance, snow that is falling and snow on the ground are different words with different roots; but ask your average native English speaker whether, say, the existence of the words ‘rain' and ‘puddle' is indicative of a more sensuous and profound experience of rain than speakers of other languages are capable of, and they would probably be sceptical. In terms of symbolic usefulness, though, the enduring nature of this interesting ‘fact' suggests that we like to imagine that the Inuit view snow differently from other cultures: rather than simply seeing ‘snow', they see one of a myriad of subtle variations of it. The images of Inuit culture that this conjures up are more meaningful and useful to us than the prosaic restrictions of facts, reality and comparative linguistics. However, even if the Inuit did have an abnormally large number of words for snow, this would not be remotely surprising, let alone ‘persistently interesting'. Just as artists distinguish between ‘oil paint', ‘acrylic' and ‘watercolours' where most of us would just see ‘paint', peoples who live in places where there is a lot of snow probably do need to talk about it more, and in more detail, than, for instance, desert peoples. Any more profound experience of snow the Inuit may have is almost certainly a product of living in the Arctic rather than something determined by language. However, the myth endures because it plays into our ideas about an exotic people living in extreme conditions and how we imagine they must experience snow so differently from us. Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
About The Author:
Gordon Rich is a self published author and translation expert. He regularly contributes articles on transcription and translation, conference transcription and minute taking company. To know more visit http://www.global-lingo.com/.
Gordon Rich is a self published author and translation expert. He regularly contributes articles on transcription and translation, conference transcription and minute taking company. To know more visit http://www.global-lingo.com/.
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