You explained the Eskimo thing better then I was going would. I was just going to say Eskimos don't us adjectives.
Jeff Miles jmile...@charter.net Join my Mafia http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/status_invite.php?from=550968726 On Jan 5, 2010, at 12:54 PM, Chris Dunford wrote: >>> It's this kind of sloppy writing that makes the rest of us have to >>> learn useless new words. >> >> Tech folks need more words that non-tech folks because they need to >> make precise distinctions. E.g. Eskimos have dozens of words for what >> we just call "snow." > > You're right in general, but Eskimos having many words for "snow" is > something of a myth. The Eskimo languages are polysynthetic, which means, > more or less, that multiple words are combined into one > as needed. Where we might say something like "dry, drifting snow", they would > combine the three words into one. So there are lots of those compound > words--as many as you can think of, really. But > there are only a few roots that specifically reference snow. The rest are all > just descriptive modifications of "snow"; the only difference is that English > uses multiple words to describe it, but they > combine "snow" and its modifiers into one. > > The same principle applies to any word, of course, so we could as easily say > that they have hundreds of words for "chicken". > > Again, I'm not disagreeing with you basic point, just the Eskimo-snow thing. > > > ************************************************************************* > ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** > ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** > ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
