Did you know that the Eskimos likely have more than 100 words for snow?

This high number is primarily due to the fact that Eskimos have a separate word for each manifestation of snow.

Inuit languages, such as Inuktitut, are polysynthetic languages. This means they can form complex words by combining different morphemes (the smallest meaning-bearing units). As a result, many variations of words can arise, such as different words for different types of snow. However, this does not mean there is a fixed number of “separate” words for snow as we know them in languages like Dutch.

In languages like English or Dutch, we often use multiple words to describe a particular concept, whereas in Inuit languages, this concept can be expressed with a single compound word. This has led to the exaggeration that there are hundreds of words for snow. There are also different opinions on whether there are truly that many words for snow, leading to a discussion about definitions.

Some examples: Powder snow = nutagak and packed snow = aniu

The photo accompanying this article is from Pixabay (via Pexels)