Inuit (Eskimo and Northern Indian) Snow Terms
(From The Aleut Language, U.S. Department of Interior. 1944 and English-Eskimo, Eskimo-English Dictionary, Canadian Research Center for Anthropology, 1970)
aput: the general term for a spread of snow
sasaq: a snowflake
apingaut: the first falling snow
kannerk: the falling snow
kannertok: the current snow
apiyok: a covering snow
perksertok: drifting snow
akelrorak: newly drifted snow
dux: a snowstorm
igadug: a violent snowstorm
tiluktortok: beating snow
panar: sharp snow
pokaktok (pokak): salty snow
massak: watery snow
sitidlorak: hard snow
mauyak (mauyaolertok): soft snow
mauyasiorpok: soft snow for traveling
taiga: soft deep snow where snowshoes are needed for travel
qali: snow that collects on trees
qumaniq: snow in the depressions around the base of trees
putak: bottom layer of coarse granulated snow
api: snow on ground
aniusarpok: snow that a dog eats
aniuk (anio): snow for melting for water
auverk: snow for building
ayak: snow on clothes
aputainnarowok: much snow on clothes
tiluktorpok: snow beaten from clothes
aputierpok: cleaned off snow
aputaitok: no snow
Anniu: snow
Qali: snow that collects on trees
Api: snow on ground
Pukak: deep hoar snow
Upsik: wind beaten snow
Siqoq: smoky or drifting snow
Saluma roaq: smooth snow surface of very fine particles
Natatgo naq: rough snow surface of large particles
Siqoqtoaq: sun crust
Kimoaqruk: drift
Anymanya: space formed between drift & obstruction causing it
Kaioglaq: sharply etched wind-eroded surface (sastrugi or skavler)
Tumarinyiq: irregular surface caused by differential erosion of hard and soft layers
Detailed knowledge of the environment was essential to the survival of native people and because snow played such a large part in their activities, they had many words to describe the variations [source and language unknown].
According to "Steven A. Jacobson's (1984) Yup'ik Eskimo dictionary",
Inuit languages have about15 "lexemes (independent noun vocabulary
items or dictionary entries) for snow. Eskimo languages are
inflectionally so complicated that each single noun lexeme may have
about 280 distinct inflected forms, while each verb lexeme may have
over 1000.
