From: noblei@hursley.ibm.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Inuit words for snow
Date: 29 Jun 1995 12:03:18 GMT
Organization: IBM UK Laboratories Ltd.
In <804329548.8959snx@mundens.equinox.gen.nz>, frankie@mundens.equinox.gen.nz (Frank Pitt) writes:
>In article <3snsk9$aoe@ari.net> arvon@ari.net writes:
>
>>I withdraw the Inuit remark. But can someone tell me if it's a myth,
>>lie, story or rumor that they have 300 words for snow?
>
>It's a rumour. Inuit have _four_ words for snow, skiers have more.
>
No idea as to the accuracy of its content, but I got sent the following a month or two back:
"Subject: Snow
With winter nearly upon us someone is bound to suggest (it happens every year) that the Inuit have more than 30 words for snow. As far as I can remember (about down the end of the block and a few paces to the right), no one has ever appended all those words (I could be mistaken, I often am). Here are the 31 words for snow in the Inuit language (I don't speak Inuit, so please don't ask me how they are pronounced) as printed by today's Denver Post:
Aniugavinirq: very hard, compressed and frozen snow
Apijaq: snow covered by bad weather
Apigiannagaut: first snow of Autumn
Apimajug: snow-covered
Apisimajug: snow-covered, but not snowed in
Apujjag: snowed-in
Aput: snow
Aputiqarniq: snowfall on ground
Aqillutaq: new snow
Auviq: snow block
Katakaqtanaq: hardcrust snow that gives way underfoot
Kavisilaq: snow roughened by frost
Kiniqtaq: compact, damp snow
Mannguq: melting snow
Masak: wet, falling snow
Matsaaq: half-melted snow
Mauja: soft, deep snow footsteps sink in
Natiruvaaq: drifting snow
Pirsirlug: blowing snow
Pukajaak: sugary snow
Putak: crystalline, breaks into grains
Qaggitaq: snow ditch to trap caribou
Qaliriiktaq: snow layer of poor quality for an igloo
Qaniktaq: new snow on ground
Qannialaaq: light, falling snow
Qiasuqqaq: thawed snow that refroze with an icy surface
Qimugjuk: snow drift
Qiqumaaq: snow with a frozen surface after spring thaw
Qirsuqaktuq: light snow
Qukaarnartuq: crusted snow
Sitilluqaq: hard snow"
-Ian Noble
