Just read the column on your Web site about the nine Eskimo words for snow, in which you encourage the idea that Eskimos have an unusually large number of terms for snow and ice. You’d better read the title essay in Geoffrey Pullum’s book The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax (1991).
Ah, jeez, Marie. Does this mean our date is off? I confess that in my column on Eskimo words for snow I was–I know this will shatter the image many of you have of me–screwing around. I did not, for example, have a factual basis for the ignorant, rude, racist, and idiotic statement that “Eskimos are not such hot spellers.” On the evidence of Marie’s letter their spelling is OK; it’s their English composition skills that blow. (Different from. “Simply want answers,” not “want simply the answers.” Delete to read. Divide run-on sentence.) Also, I cannot honestly state that Eskimos are laconic because “they’re conserving their strength for their next foray into their god-awful grammar.” Apparently they can run off at the mouth just like anybody else.
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(3) The allegedly large number of words Eskimos have for snow is widely adduced as evidence for what linguists call the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, the gist of which is that language reflects a culture’s preoccupations and in so doing imposes certain patterns of thought on individual members of that culture.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
