Is the Inuit language really full of snow language? Most interesting findings from the study of 616 languages

Language is a window into the world of those who speak them, reflecting what they cherish and experience every day.

Thus, perhaps different languages ​​emphasize different areas of vocabulary. Scholars point out that the Mongols have many words related to horses, the Maori have many words for ferns, and the Japanese have many words related to taste.

Some links are not surprising, such as German, who have many words related to beer, or Fijians who have many words for fish. Linguist Paul Zinsuri wrote an entire book on Swiss German language related to mountains.

A recently published study of the minutes of the National Academy of Sciences took a broad approach to understanding the links between different languages ​​and concepts.

Computational methods were used to identify areas of vocabulary that are characteristic of a particular language, providing insights into linguistic and cultural change.

Our work adds to the growing understanding of language, culture and how they both relate.

Our Way

We tested 163 links between languages ​​and concepts drawn from the literature.

We have compiled a digital dataset of 1574 bilingual dictionaries that translate English and 616 different languages. Many of these dictionaries were still copyrighted, so we only had access to the count of how often a particular word was displayed in each dictionary.

One example of the concept we saw was “horse.” The language included French, German, Kazakhs and Mongols. This means that there are relatively many dictionaries for these languages

The words of horses. For example, Mongolian Ask means “the term “good race or horse riding” related to horses. For example, Mongolian ч /> means “punching holes in the horse.”

However, counts can be influenced by “horse” in the example sentences when using unrelated terms.

After all, isn’t it a hoax?

Our findings show that Hindi has many words related to love, while Japanese has many words related to obligation and obligation.

I was particularly interested in testing the idea that Inuit language has a lot of snow language. This infamous claim has long been distorted and exaggerated. Dismissed as a “spoofing the great Eskimo vocabulary,” some experts say it simply isn’t true.

However, our results suggest that the Inuit snow vocabulary is indeed exceptional. Of the 616 languages, the language with the top score for “snow” was Inuktitut in eastern Canada. Two other Inuit languages ​​in the dataset (Inuktitut in western Canada and Inupiatun in northern Alaska) also achieved high “snow” scores.

The East Canadian Inuktitut Dictionary of Datasets contains terms such as Kikalkpok. This means “walking on heavy snow” and “first snow falls.”

The top 20 languages ​​for “snow” included several other Alaska languages, including Japanese and Scotland, such as Alaska, Deninaina, and Central Yupik in Alaska.

Scotland includes terms such as Doonleigh, meaning “a heavy fall of snow,” and fuddum, meaning “a sudden slight fall of snow,” and “snow falling at intervals.”

You can explore your findings using the tools we have developed. This allows you to identify the top language of a particular concept and the top concept of a particular language.

Language and Environment

All languages ​​with the top score of “snow” are spoken in snowy areas, but the top ranked language of “rain” has not always come from the most rainy regions of the world.

For example, South Africa has moderate rainfall, but there are many rain-related languages ​​in the region such as Nyanja, East Taa and Shona. This is probably because unlike snow, rain is important for human survival. This means people are still out of town and talking about it.

For East Taa speakers, rain is relatively rare and desirable. This is reflected in terms such as “a form of respect for the Thunder to bring about rain” and terms such as Lábe||Núu-Bâ, such as |Qába.

Our tools can also be used to explore a variety of concepts related to perception (“smell”), emotions (“love”), and cultural beliefs (“ghosts”).

Top score languages ​​for “smell” include clusters of marine languages ​​such as Jatobo, which means “smell of wet clothing,” and Marshall, which has terms such as Ael, which means “smell of fish, hands, body, or tools,” which means “smell of blood.”

Prior to our study, the odor conditions in the Pacific Islands received little attention.

Some notes

Our analysis reveals many interesting links between language and concepts, but the results are not always reliable and should be checked against the original dictionary if possible.

For example, the top concepts of Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) include von(“of”), den(“), and und(” and “). We used Wiktionary to exclude similar words from other languages, but our method did not exclude these common words from Plautdietsch.

Word count also reflects both the definition of the dictionary and other elements such as sentences. Our analysis excluded words that are likely to appear in example sentences, particularly in example sentences (such as “woman” or “father”), but it is possible that such words still had an impact on the outcome.

Most importantly, our results pose a risk of perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes when taken at face value. Therefore, you will seek attention and respect while using the tool. A concept that lists in any language provides at best a rough reflection of the culture associated with that language.

This article will be republished from the conversation under a Creative Commons license. Please read the original article.