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2. Eskimos have seventy words for snow. ↑

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2. Eskimos have seventy words for snow.
On page 15 of Frogs, Bandler and Grinder state that “Eskimos have some seventy words for snow”. Pullum explores this myth in his book ”The great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax”. He cites the work of anthropologist Laura Martin of Cleveland State University who spent some of her research time during the 1980s attempting to slay the constantly changing, self-regenerating myth of Eskimo snow terminology. She traced the myth to the original source of Franz Boas' introduction the Handbook of North American Indians (1911).
“And all Boas says there, in the context of a low-key and slightly ill-explained discussion of independent versus derived terms for things in different languages, is that just as English uses separate roots for a variety of forms of water (liquid, lake, river, brook, rain, dew, wave, foam) that might be formed by derivational morphology from a single root meaning 'water' in some other language, so Eskimo uses the apparently distinct roots aput 'snow on the ground', gana 'falling snow', piqsirpoq 'drifting snow', and qimuqsuq 'a snow drift'. Boas' point is simply that English expressed these notions by phrases involving the root snow, but things could have been otherwise, just as the words for lake, river, etc. could have been formed derivationally or periphrastically on the root water”. P161
“Don't be a coward like me. Stand up and tell the speaker this: C W Schultz-Lorentzen's Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo Language (1927) gives just two possibly relevant roots: qanik, meaning 'snow in the air' or 'snowflake', and aput, meaning 'snow on the ground'. Then add that you would be interested to know if the speaker can cite any more”. P167
As a modeller I too am interested in what people do especially when perpetuating inaccurate models. My concern for a modelling field is the lack investigation and accurate modelling. It is one level of error to believe the Emperor is wearing fine clothes if you haven’t seen the Emperor, it is another when you have.

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