You鈥檒l have almost certainly heard the old falsehood that the . This stems from a misunderstanding of the grammar of Eskimo languages such as Greenlandic and Inuktitut, which are based on , or the idea of sticking bits of words together.
What this falsehood relies on is the idea that different cultures have different ways of expressing phenomena specific to their lived experience 鈥 it might be logical to many Europeans, for example, that the Inuit have developed a highly descriptive, nuanced vocabulary to describe the snowy environment in which they live.
In linguistics this is known as , or the Sapir鈥揥horf hypothesis, and is interpreted by many as 鈥測ou can鈥檛 understand something you don鈥檛 have the words to describe鈥. This overly literal interpretation is not generally accepted by linguists 鈥 but we鈥檙e getting bogged down in a discussion of theory here.
While linguistic relativity is a bit of a controversial subject, what we can say for certain is that different languages have evolved different ways of describing the weather, and that some languages offer more shades of nuance than others. In this article, we鈥檒l take a look at some of the more succinct and idiosyncratic weather words in a few Nordic languages.
Icelandic
The rich spectrum of weather words in Icelandic reflects the highly changeable and often dramatic weather conditions experienced on this North Atlantic island. Exposed as it is to chilly Arctic gusts and northerly breezes from the Mexican Gulf, conditions are often dramatic and are rarely stable for long.
In the depths of winter, you鈥檙e likely to experience or 鈥渄rift runner鈥, a kind of dry, drifting snow, along with a 蹿箩煤办 or , a particularly blustery, heavy snowstorm. A mere blizzard might be described as a . Once it鈥檚 hit the ground, you can describe it simply as , although you can opt for the more poetic or . As it starts to warm up, sleety snow falls as听 and, once on the ground,听 (also the word for a slushy ice drink). If you鈥檙e particularly unlucky, this will freeze into overnight: smooth, very slippery ice that鈥檚 almost impossible to walk on.
In spring and summer, you鈥檙e more likely to encounter a , or rain shower. A not uncommon occurrence is the , a sudden outburst of cold, rain and snow in what was otherwise a perfectly pleasant week of spring weather. Ever present in all seasons is the relentless , a strong, dry wind that upsets dustbins and tourists alike 鈥 and requires you moisturise constantly.
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Norwegian
Norway stretches across 24 degrees of latitude and faces out onto the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Its long coastline and rugged, mountainous terrain mean that the country is 惫忙谤产颈迟迟, or 鈥渨eather-bitten鈥, by a wide range of conditions, words for which are preserved in the many dialects of Norwegian.
滨苍听听so-called 鈥渄irty鈥 weather 鈥 i.e. when it鈥檚 cold and slightly wet and windy 鈥 is described as 驳苍忙蝉颈. 滨苍听听in southeastern Norway, if it鈥檚 snowy and blustery outside and you鈥檙e best off staying indoors, then you鈥檙e experiencing 产耻惫忙谤 or 鈥渟hack weather鈥 (this is similar to the Icelandic听听or 鈥渨indow weather鈥, i.e. weather that鈥檚 best enjoyed on the inside of a window). 滨苍听, a snowstorm is known as 诲谤别惫惫忙谤 or 鈥渄riving weather鈥, referring to the motion of the snow (compare Icelandic 诲谤铆蹿补). In standard Norwegian, this might be known as a 蝉苍酶蹿辞办办 or 鈥渟now blow鈥, fokk coming from the verb fyke 鈥渢o drift, blow鈥.
Continuing the snowy theme, in听听in the south, fine-grained snow is known as fygl. Up in Rana in the north of the country, slushy snow is known as 蝉酶谤辫补. In the west, snow that doesn鈥檛 settle is called 迟辞谤谤办箩酶惫颈苍驳.听In northern , there鈥檚 even a specific verb for sinking into 鈥渞otten鈥 snow, such as that which forms underneath a tree in late winter: vadetruge. Then there鈥檚 perhaps the funnest of all: kram. This is snow that鈥檚 easy to pack together and is perfect for building snowmen or making snowballs.
There are also dozens of words for icy or slippery conditions, including 丑氓濒办别 or 丑酶濒办别 (compare Icelandic 丑谩濒办补),听蹿耻产补濒濒蹿酶谤别, 驳濒补谤丑氓濒办补, glerunden, hault, h氓lt, klakkf酶re and speilblankt. A particularly interesting example is 蝉惫颈办丑氓濒迟, or 鈥渄eceptively slippery鈥, which refers to invisible ice such as black ice.
A final favourite of one of our in-house Norwegian translators is 听or the 鈥渃ake thaw鈥. This refers to a period of mild weather around Christmas, which folk belief credits to the increased use of ovens during that time for all the Christmas baking.
In the case of Norwegian, it should be noted that the abundance of weather-related words has more to do with the relative lack of standardisation in the language and acceptance of dialectal variations rather than a vocabulary that concisely expresses subtle differences between types of snow, for example.
Finnish
Most parts of Finland experience heavy snowfall in the winter due to its continental location. Straightforward snow is called, quite simply, lumi. However, big, fluffy snowflakes are not an uncommon occurrence. There are a few different words for these, all metaphorical, such as 迟颈蝉办颈谤盲迟颈迟 鈥渄颈蝉丑肠濒辞迟丑蝉鈥, karvalakit 鈥渇ur hats鈥 and vaipat 鈥渘appies鈥. Finnish also has its equivalent of the Norwegian kram 鈥 that perfect builder鈥檚 snow 鈥 or nuoska.
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We鈥檝e seen that although we can count many words relating to the weather in the languages we鈥檝e looked at, it鈥檚 not the case that they all pertain to unique conditions that English lacks the words to describe. What we can say, however, is that many of them nail a precise meaning in a concise way, whereas we might simply need a few more words to get the same meaning across.
This boils down to the essence of translation: the meanings of words across languages don鈥檛 always correspond 1:1 and often terms overlap awkwardly. Which for us linguists is a good thing, as it shows precisely why we鈥檙e needed.
Finnish language, Icelandic language, Nordic languages, Norwegian language
