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Do Arctic Languages Really Have 40 Words for Snow? New Evidence

2026-07-20 Science & Technology
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Anton Petrov
Anton Petrov
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Description

Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath (Unreleased videos, extra footage, DMs, no ads) Alternatively, PayPal donations can be sent here: http://paypal.me/whatdamath Get a Wonderful Person Tee: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath More cool designs are on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QFIrFX Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about whether some cultures indeed have many words for certain concepts Links: https://charleskemp.com/code/lexicalelaboration_conversation.html https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2068/20252374/481270/Statistical-structure-and-the-evolution-of?searchresult=1 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2417304122 #eskimo #linguistics #language 0:00 How many words for snow? 1:20 New study on languages 2:02 Conjugation or actual words? 3:10 Japanese? 4:20 Korean 4:50 French 5:25 Lexical elaboration 6:40 Patterns in all languages 9:00 Confirmations and implications 10:10 Conclusions Enjoy and please subscribe Bitcoin/Ethereum to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! bc1qnkl3nk0zt7w0xzrgur9pnkcduj7a3xxllcn7d4 or ETH: 0x60f088B10b03115405d313f964BeA93eF0Bd3DbF The hardware used to record these videos: New Camera: https://amzn.to/4pCVINS CPU: https://amzn.to/4qXIaxC Video Card: https://amzn.to/2M1W26C Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2JYGiQQ RAM: https://amzn.to/2Mwy2t4 PSU: https://amzn.to/2LZcrIH Case: https://amzn.to/2MwJZz4 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2t5jTv0 Mixer: https://amzn.to/2JOL0oF Recording and Editing: https://amzn.to/2LX6uvU Some of the above are affiliate links, meaning I would get a (very small) percentage of the price paid. Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Special thanks also goes to all the wonderful supporters of the channel through YouTube Memberships Credit: Mark Garlick www.markgarlick.com Licenses used: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and relevant Creative Commons licenses

Top Comments (10)

@lwscijunkie 2026-07-20

My mom HATED having to drive in the snow and she had more than 40 words for the white stuff and none of them were appropriate.

190 7 replies
@timothy8428 2026-07-20

Well, scientists have 40 kinds of ice, so it's only fair.

33 1 replies
@kennylex 2026-07-21

In swedish we can build words, "snö" is the main word for snow, then we have nysnö, blötsnö, kramsnö, konstsnö, pudersnö and so on, we can also have words as snöorm, snöslask, snömodd, snöhögar and other combinations. And the snow can also be called "skare" if it hard over soft snow and "slask" if it wet as mud, so we can form whatever word we want for any kind of snow.

14
@paradox7358 2026-07-20

Fun fact: Albanian's have 27 distinct words for both eyebrows and mustaches.

41 3 replies
@luizgava798 2026-07-20

I know for sure Italians have hundreds of words for "pasta"

46 15 replies
@msumungo 2026-07-20

Finnish language has more than 100 words for snow, all the basic words and compound words in different dialects combined. However Finnish language has even more words for alcohol.

16 4 replies
@osmosisjones4912 2026-07-20

Remember a Malcolm in middle episode. A native American said I only have one word for snow. Snow

8
@deadman746 2026-07-20

As a cognitive psycholinguist I have to point out that nobody has the slightest idea what a word is. The space between words is what matters.

10 3 replies
@josephmartin1540 2026-07-19

So, that’s why scientists have so many words for water and ice… they did the maths. 🌝

11
@berserkberserk997 2026-07-20

as a italian i get it by comparison with the word rain, we have some. it depends on how big the drop is and the intensity of the rainfall and also if it comes sideways forced by the wind, and on and on and on...

9 1 replies

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