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From: thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (Thom Gillespie)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Computer Languages and the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis
Keywords: computer languages, Sapir/Whorf hypothesis, linguistics, snow, eskimos
Message-ID: <38382@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 23 Aug 90 22:30:01 GMT
References: <5137@munnari.oz.au> <1445@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> <1990Aug22.194652.7421@fs-1.iastate.edu>
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In article <1990Aug22.194652.7421@fs-1.iastate.edu> spam@iastate.edu (Begley Michael L) writes:
>
>>(~11 Inuit language words for snow) and (~1 English word for snow)
>> ==> (Inuit language and English users think about snow differently)
>
>This is one of those _completely_ false myths.  The eskimo language has
>only two words for snow---one that means 'snow that is falling' and 'snow
>that has fallen'.
>...
>depending on your source, when in fact only two words have been documented.
>
>Having two words for snow is no big deal, either.. how many words do we
>have for the stuff, after all?
>
>snow, flakes, slush, sleet, etc...
>
>I can get further information about this (perhaps even post my source
>if I can find it) including the 'actual words' for anyone who requests it.
>
>mike begley
>spam@hobbes.cc.iastate.edu

My guess is that you can't find the source to prove that there are only 2 words
any more than anyone can find the source to prove that there are only 25, etc.

Inuit language was not written before 1970 -- it was all spoken and it varied 
from village to village, even villages which were relatively next to each other
e.g. Noatak and Kivalina in the North West Arctic.

And since you've already stated that we have many words for snow, why would you
think they have less since snow kills far more often in the Arctic than in
Philadelphia -- naming states of snow are very important.

I remember a winter in Kivalina when the ice began to sing which is when the
moon gets fixed up right and starts to drag hundreds of square miles of frozen
sea around. It makes a strange hum which you can not get away from and it lasts
for hours. When it happened the elder Inuits people of the village were running
all over the place saying, "We never told them the word for it!" -- they were
talking about their kids.

If you spent a winter above the arctic circle you'd be surpirzed at the number
of words you'd dream up for different states of snow. There are hundreds of
verbal nuances for snow, almost as many as we have for cars down here.

Their experience with their environment definitely changed the way they
talk about snow; our involvement with hardware and software has added to our
language and changed the way we talk and think about computers et al. What came
first grep, awk and yacc or our talking about grep, awk and yacc. Could any of
us have scrolled through our mental desktops and double clicked an idea before
we used the Mac?

If you want to know about snow in the Arctic then go there and experience it,
if you can't afford to go then send a letter to Oscar Swan, Kivalina, Alaska and
ask him how many words he uses for snow -- maybe he'll tell you, maybe he
won't!

--Thom Gillespie