Lexical wealth (was: Origin of Language)

Cameron Laird (claird@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM)
1 Aug 1995 09:44:52 -0500

In article <3v8rj9$u5h@tetsuo.communique.net>,
Patrick H. Adkins <treasure.mountain@mail.sstar.com> wrote:
.
.
.
>expressing both subtle and complicated distinctions. (In general, I
>mean; yes, I know some Eskimo tribes have 27 or more words for _snow_,
>each with a slightly different meaning. But given many generalized
>concepts to express, I doubt they'd do as well as English.)
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.
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Will the congregation please turn now to item 16 of
<URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/
usenet/sci-lang-faq/faq.html>, wherein we may read

[T]he Yup'ik language in particular
has about two dozen roots describing
snow or things related to snow. This
is not particularly significant;
English can amass about the same total
...

I know, Mr. Adkins, that this does not bear on your
main point, but it *is* a FAQ.

-- 

Cameron Laird http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html
claird@Neosoft.com +1 713 267 7966
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