We don't have snow very often in my part of the world. In fact I can count the number of heavy snowfalls in Blackpool on one hand. I do recall in the early 1980s, it started to snow heavily on a journey returning home from The Lakes. The snow was extreme and on reaching the large hill at Great Eccleston, we found a queue of cars that were unable to climb it. Luckily a double-decker bus soon arrived and managed to ascend, leaving tracks that allowed the rest to follow. My parents were en route to my sister's pub, The Plough at Eaves, when they drove into a deep drift on the very narrow Cinder Lane. My Brother-in-Law had to find them in his Range Rover and tow them out. It was quite a day all round.
When my children were little. we had two kittens, one black and one tabby who was very adventurous. Every morning, Sophie would leap from the kitchen window onto the lawn. The day that it snowed, she tried her usual exit and landed bang smack in a deep snow drift below the window. I had to dig the poor little mite ot and dry her off with a towel. I had to go into work that day but the snowfall continued well into the afternoon and for the first time ever we were sent home early. The car park was so deeply covered that management thought we would all get stuck.
When I arrived home. the kids donned cold weather clothes and we ventured out into the front garden. The snow was well over the top of Katie's wellies but we plodded on and decided to make a snowman. Well not a snowman exactly - we actually made Wallace and Grommit. What fun.
I went on a skiing holiday in 1980s with my sister, her husband and their two young sons. We drove overland to Munich and spent Christmas with my brother, his wife and their two sons. For the New Year, we drove into Austria to the famous resort Kaprun. I hadn't realised that I was actually to perform the role of Au Pair and would be expected to take the four boys to the nursery slopes every day. Being a non-skier, I found it quite difficult to keep warm while entertaining the little ones. To be truthful, although the scenery was stunning and the snow was fun. I really wasn't having a great time.
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| Kaprun, Zell am See, Austria |
When studying lexicology during my English degree, we were informed that the Inuit people of North America have over a hundred word for snow. Having done my research, I found that this theory by 19th Century anthropologist Boas, is exactly that and has been labelled The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax. In England we only have drifts, white snow and brown slush. Oh how I hate brown slush. Here is a brief lexicon of Inuit and Swedish terms for snow.
- qanuk: ‘snowflake’
- kaneq: ‘frost’
- kanevvluk: ‘fine snow’
- qanikcaq: ‘snow on ground’
- muruaneq: ‘soft deep snow’
- nutaryuk: ‘fresh snow’
- pirta: ‘blizzard’
- qengaruk: ‘snow bank’
- Snjór/Snær: Snow
- Mjöll: Fresh snow
- Hjarn: Icy snow
- Kafsnjór/kafaldi/kafald: deep snowdrifts
- Krap/Slabb: Slushy snow mixed with water.
4 comments:
A good job the kitten wasn't white! Your list if nordic snow terms is halfway to being a poem in itself :-)
I remember our snow days with great fondness
I remember reading an article years ago about how Eskimos (as they were known then) had over 50 words for snow but suicide didn't exist in their culture and they had no word for it in their vocabulary.
Cheers Adele for taking me to the Lakes, down a snowdrift and to Austria. How I miss snow.
Yes,your snow vocabulary list is like a poem - indeed.
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