"There's an old myth that Inuit cultures have as many as a hundred words for snow. I remember learning about it in school, and there was just something wonderful about the idea that people's perceptions can be so deeply rich and different. I guess that's why, although it has been debunked many times, the story keeps getting repeated. There is also a lot of truth to the underlying concept."
"What do you call a square? What makes the Inuit snow myth compelling is that it so viscerally illustrates how language can reveal deeper truths. For example, in German the word for square is Platz and in neighboring Poland, it is Plac, a word that is pronounced very similarly. In Russian, the word is Ploshchad, so again, you can see the family resemblance."
An old myth claims Inuit cultures have as many as a hundred words for snow, a claim that has been debunked many times, yet the anecdote underscores how language can shape perception. Language and vocabulary preserve cultural and historical information, reveal social relationships, and reflect migration and influence between peoples. Geographic neighbors often share cognate words for common concepts, while different terms can signal distinct historical contacts, as with Ukraine's Maidan deriving from Turkish. Slavic linguistic roots preserve social identity markers, such as slav from slov meaning 'word', and terms like Niemiec encapsulate attitudes toward outsiders.
Read at Fast Company
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