I read once that the ancient Egyptians
had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos
had a hundred words for snow. I wish I
had a thousand words for love, but all
that comes to mind is the way you move
against me while you sleep & there are
no words for that.
From StoryPeople.
Oh, that's wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI really like this.
ReplyDeleteThe English have a surprising number of words for the sound of running water. I'm just saying.
ReplyDeleteI like this story, too.
ReplyDeleteCathy, how about a list?
Some water-related English verbs:
ReplyDeletedribble, gush, rush, run, drip, ebb, ooze, seep, exude, circulate, percolate, undulate, bleed, gutter, trickle, flow, billow, wallow, course, heave, cockle, ripple, ruffle, riffle, surge, spill, drain, jet, stream, eddy, purl, swirl, whirl, seethe, boil, effervesce, fizz, foam, froth, lave, lap, roll, roil, churn, moil, wash, well, deluge, flood, swamp, inundate, drench, submerge, fill, submerse, engulf, drown, overflow, dip, immerse, plunge, duck, dunk, sink, babble, burble, guggle, gurgle, ripple, bubble, lap, splash, murmur, purl, plash, spatter, splatter, swash, splosh, slush ...
That's before you get onto the various words for rain :-)
Well now, Cathy, you did your homework for this one, didn't you? Thank you.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a damp country, England.
ReplyDeletewv - turge - that could definitely be another one.
Here in south Louisiana, it's damp, too. I'm more grateful than I can say for the additions to my vocabulary for expressing running water.
ReplyDeleteI feel south Louisiana would probably have more dynamic terminology for running water than England.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I like the story too.
Cathy, I thought of a word not in your list - flush. The Cajun in me prolly brought that one to mind.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear ...
ReplyDelete:-(
wv - graces
I'm not gloating. Really. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI remember quite a few Inuktitut (Eskimo) words for snow, but not a hundred. I thought there were about thirteen. Still, I only lived there for three years - maybe I didn't learn them all!
ReplyDeleteTim, that's an urban myth apparently - the Inuit haven't especially got more words for snow than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteMimi, I'm confused. Why would you be gloating? Is my list of words a bit over the top? It was hastily cobbled together after you requested it, so I was always bound to have missed a few out :-(
Cathy, did you think of all those words yourself? I'm in awe. I misjudged you grievously, thinking you had probably consulted a list of synonyms, and I was a bit puffed up because I thought of a word that the "expert" word compilers had missed. But now that I know that you are the expert, I am beyond humbled.
ReplyDeleteWell, I left in 1991 and haven't really used the language since the, but I can remember about six without thinking too hard. I remember when I lived there thinking there were about thirteen. Concepts like packed snow, sugar snow, wet snow etc. all have different words in Inuktitut, some of them rather pleasingly constructed. For instance, the word that refers to snow you can use for building snowhouses is iglukhak, from 'iglu' (house) and the suffix 'hak' ('material for').
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Cathy, I was mightily impressed with your list, too!
Mimi - I thought you were being sarcastic. Are you being sarcastic? ... No I did indeed look them up online - though if I'd had time to sit down and think I would have got quite a few of them, I suppose. But I did it quickly, and didn't take them all from the same listings. I'm sure there are more.
ReplyDeleteTim, I suspect the suggestion that there are 50 words for snow in the Eskimo languages might come from the 1992 novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, which was a massive bestseller. I could well be wrong. I like "iglukhak" :-)
Cathy, you ask if I was being sarcastic. Give me a minute to try to recapture the moment.
ReplyDelete.......
As best I can remember, I was being jokey, but in today's world, I live in irony, to a great extent. It's become difficult even for me to tell when I'm deadly serious and forthright. Call it a coping mechanism to get through most days, but I see my plight as not an entirely healthy state of mind, although it may keep serve to keep me out of a mental institution.
And if I did not have faith....
In some ways it would be interesting to see where we would all be and what we would be like if we did not have faith.
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