Inuit languages really do have many words for snow, linguists found—and other languages have conceptual specialties, too, potentially revealing what a culture values
A great game of telephone inflated the number until, in 1984, the New York Times published an editorial claiming the Inuit have “100 synonyms” for the frozen white stuff we lump under a single term.
I (native speaker of German) have heard jokes that among the Inuit they claim that in German there are 100 words to complain about snow.
I (native speaker of German) have heard jokes that among the Inuit they claim that in German there are 100 words to complain about snow.