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UAE Tour 2021, February 21 - February 27

Page 22 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Yupik is not Inuit, but both are Eskimo. And both have many different words for snow with completely different roots.
You mean the roots gana, piqsir-poc, qimuqsuq and aput? those are the 4 Boas listed, I don’t know if there are more. Laura Martin pointed out the myth perpetuated by Whorf was false, and really its just like the many different roots we have for water in English; sea, ocean, lake, loch, river, puddle, dew and so on. No one would claim that means we have multiple words for water in English in the way they claim Eskimo languages have multiple words for snow. We even have multiple words for snow in English; snow, slush, sleet, powder, probably more. Pullum’s essay on this is worth a read:

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/EskimoHoax.pdf

It’s used as an argument for the strong version of linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism. This is essentially saying the language we speak determines how we see and think about the world, so that people who speak different languages have different thought processes. This is widely regarded as false.
 
You mean the roots gana, piqsir-poc, qimuqsuq and aput? those are the 4 Boas listed, I don’t know if there are more. Laura Martin pointed out the myth perpetuated by Whorf was false, and really its just like the many different roots we have for water in English; sea, ocean, lake, loch, river, puddle, dew and so on. No one would claim that means we have multiple words for water in English in the way they claim Eskimo languages have multiple words for snow. We even have multiple words for snow in English; snow, slush, sleet, powder, probably more. Pullum’s essay on this is worth a read:

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/EskimoHoax.pdf

It’s used as an argument for the strong version of linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism. This is essentially saying the language we speak determines how we see and think about the world, so that people who speak different languages have different thought processes. This is widely regarded as false.
I don't care what it's used for, most (strong) relativistic (and deterministic) takes are dumb.

I'm no linguist, but from what I've read there is (some) truth to it (and it makes sense, I think), even if I'm sure that the extent (and what follows from it) is somewhat of a myth. I don't know if the amount of words for snow is twofold or fivefold that of English, but I certainly don't think many other languages have a specific word for snow in one's boots. Unfortunately, our libraries are all closed, and from what I can gather none of the Danish-Greenlandic dictionaries are available electronically. Something more interesting I've read, is that while up connotes something good in almost all languages (e.g. to feel elevated) and down the opposite, it is the reverse for Inuit languages iirc.

Anyway, I'll admit that it was the use of Inuit as a substitute for Eskimo that triggered my response. (Most annoying when used for the Eskimos that entered and inhabited Greenland before the Inuit and Norse did).
 
For some reason you are not supposed to say Eskimo in German anymore, they are all Inuit now. The reasoning is that Inuit is the term they use for themselves and that they find the term Eskimo degrading, although I don't get that, because it seems to be false and quite the other way around for the non-Inuit Eskimo.

Anyway, although I think liguistic determinism can't be sustained as a concept, I think it's true that language shapes our thinking profoundly, and that's not even so much about words, but mostly about the structure, like do we speak a language that is mostly based on grammatical constructions or one that has an abundance of words, does it use causal constructions a lot, and so on.
 
Quickstep is up for shenanigans its seems. They're doing close to 60km

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I don't care what it's used for, most (strong) relativistic (and deterministic) takes are dumb.

I'm no linguist, but from what I've read there is (some) truth to it (and it makes sense, I think), even if I'm sure that the extent (and what follows from it) is somewhat of a myth. I don't know if the amount of words for snow is twofold or fivefold that of English, but I certainly don't think many other languages have a specific word for snow in one's boots. Unfortunately, our libraries are all closed, and from what I can gather none of the Danish-Greenlandic dictionaries are available electronically. Something more interesting I've read, is that while up connotes something good in almost all languages (e.g. to feel elevated) and down the opposite, it is the reverse for Inuit languages iirc.

Anyway, I'll admit that it was the use of Inuit as a substitute for Eskimo that triggered my response. (Most annoying when used for the Eskimos that entered and inhabited Greenland before the Inuit and Norse did).
The truth is pretty far from the myth, which is were this conversation started, hence my reply. I think all languages have words that are unique, "hygge" being a good example as you mention Danish (I have no idea if this appears in other North Germanic languages or elsewhere?). From what my partner tells me there is no direct French translation for shallow, they wouldn't specify whether casquette meant a cycling cap or a baseball cap like we would and so on. That's interesting about up, it reminds me that shaking your head means yes in many countries and no in many others which has caused me a lot of confusion while teaching. I have a big interest in languages, their roots etc. even though I can't barely manage "Cafe French" and a few phrases in other languages.

I used Inuit because I couldn't remember where the myth originated and how the languages are formally classified. I had to go back and look it up, and I'm still not sure how closely related Aleut is, sorry about that. I know that there is some controversy over which term you should use for the people, but I wouldn't want to get into that discussion as we're going to far off topic as it is!
 
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Interesting to see that everyone that was good in the Tour de la Provence (Haig, Poels and Sosa) were all minutes behind the best yesterday. I know that all 3 of them areen't exactly the most consistent riders, but it probably has something to do with having to ride with really low temperatures a bit over a week ago (with snow on the side of the road) and now having to ride in the heat, the body needs some time to adapt to the heat and those huge temperature differences are always a challenge.
 

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