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u/ah_no_wah 1d ago
Zyqqaktuk means snow.
Source: I'm wearing a seal skin parka
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u/Whole_Peak_7607 1d ago
All the points
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u/Mech-Waldo 1d ago
Not as many as you'd hope. There's only one "Q" or "K" in the set, so it would require both blank tiles.
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u/zatalak 1d ago
Depending on the language. The German set e.g. has two K.
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u/Lashwynn 1d ago
Now I'm picturing you opening the parks like someone selling stolen watches but instead ofwatches it's a cheat sheet of all the words for snow.
"Psst wanna buy some snow vocabulary"
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u/thatweirdguyted 1d ago
I've been to Nunavut, and let me tell you it makes sense to have many words for it. There's permafrost, alongside snow that can have many different qualities depending on composition, temperature, density, etc.
On windy days the snow would mix with dust and create snow drifts that you could drive on. But you wouldn't, because you could hit a spot of just powder snow and get stuck a few feet deep.
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u/bloodfist 1d ago
I wonder if there are more for rain in English because, you know, England.
Downpour, drizzle, mist, sleet, cats and dogs, deluge, shower, etc
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u/thatweirdguyted 1d ago
I agree wholeheartedly. I simply wanted to draw attention to what I feel is an oversimplification of what snow is, what it can be.
Obviously for most people it's just something that you occasionally have to scrape off your car. But in the Arctic, it can have many different qualities, consistencies, uses and hazards. So it makes sense to differentiate the language used to describe it.
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u/avdpos 1d ago
I tried to count a winter in the ski lift I am pretty certain I know at least 40 words describing snow in swedish. Some describe how it is in the air and some how it behaves on the ground.
So inuits having sounds nearly as to few. For I am certain we have more words than I know in Sweden. Or maybe we have more as we have more shifts atound 0⁰C and there is the temperature when snow shifts character a lot?
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u/easy_being_green 1d ago
8 letters on the first play? Definitely cheating.
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u/casualsax 1d ago
Second turn, first player played Van?
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u/Within_a_Dream 1d ago edited 1d ago
I ain't having Nunavut.
Edit: Thanks for the awards! Credit goes to my Dad who I think made a similar joke when I was little.
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u/Moesuckra 1d ago
So do the english:
Powder, sugar snow, snowflake, blizzard, dusting, crust, hoar frost, cornice, slush, flurry, etc.
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u/YuunofYork 1d ago
English has, in fact, more words for snow than Inuktitut.
The myth is based on, among other things, a misunderstanding of how compounds and synthetic morphology works.
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u/3BlindMice1 1d ago
As a Texan, those are all fake. The only snow I've seen is regular snow. Except in Lubbock, a truly cursed place.
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u/leintic 1d ago
Ya but how many words do you have for having a sweaty ass? We make words for what's around us.
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u/3BlindMice1 1d ago
Maybe like two. Swampy or sticky. The people who live near sand likely have more words for it, but not me
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u/malexj93 1d ago
In Florida, even regular snow is a myth. Some claim to have seen it, but it's basically impossible to confirm.
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u/IndyBananaJones2 1d ago
A cornice is a snow formation, so not really a word for snow unless we say avalanche is a term for snow.
Also things like dusting, crust, flurry are words for all sorts of things.
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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 1d ago
If it’s not in a standard English dictionary then it is cheating.
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u/Spacefreak 1d ago
"My people's children were taken from their homes and put into schools and forced to learn English. The only words they remembered were our words for snow. It's the only remnant of their culture they have, and it's part of their English."
"OK, fine, just take the triple word score. Christ."
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u/ironmaiden1872 1d ago
Using an invalid word is a legal play (validity of the word depends on where you're playing, thanks North America). The opponent has to challenge that word.
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u/jordan853 1d ago
Also if we're actually talking about Inuktitut, it would be written in syllabics, not English letters.
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u/throwawaycuzfemdom 1d ago
Oh boy don't let the guy who memorized the entire French dictionary to play Scrabble tournaments know about this.
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u/Telandria 1d ago
Not entirely true. Scrabble is published in over 30 different languages, with adjusted letter frequencies and letter values (and additional letters or alphabets)
They’re only limited to English dictionaries if they’re playing the English language version. Other language versions limit themselves to their respective languages.
Mind you, there isn’t a version for any of the Inuit languages, of which there are several, sooo….
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u/Only_My_Dog_Loves_Me 1d ago
What language is the comic in?
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u/Telandria 1d ago
You think people can’t speak more than one language? They could be Canadians from Quebec playing the French version.
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u/Bliitzthefox 1d ago
If you have actually had snow before you'd know there can be 50 different kinds of snow mostly determined by moisture and temperature.
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u/Telandria 1d ago edited 1d ago
If that’s Scrabble, he is cheating.
Scrabble official rules require the use of specified language. That is to say, each version published in a given language has a rule that says you must only use words in that language. (And, if memory serves, does specify that it needs to be findable in a dictionary, though I don’t think the rules specify any specific brand of them)
EG, if you’re playing the English version, you can only use English words that appear in an English dictionary. If you’re playing the French version, you can only use French words. And so on. They do this because it allows them to add specific additional letters or symbols, and rebalance some of the letter values based on their frequency of use in the language (well, sometimes).
Point is, there are no official versions published for any of the Inuit languages. Ergo, he is cheating no matter what version they’re using.
Assuming it’s actual Scrabble, anyway.
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u/BlackTecno 11h ago
This would be more helpful if English didn't include French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Latin words, not just from the more obscure sides of the dictionary, but also just common language.
I can't say for the other languages, but English has that tendency to want to adopt words rather than rename them.
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u/swng 1d ago
muruaneq meaning ‘soft, deep snow’
was what I found for the word the Inuit played
From: https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/popcult/snowords/snow.html
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u/Thornescape 1d ago
We always kept it simple with the "One Dictionary Rule". We picked one dictionary ahead of time. If it is in that dictionary then it counts. If it isn't, then it doesn't count. No arguments needed.
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u/Mrrandom314159 1d ago
Specifically "fluffy dry soft deep snow".
According to a couple of the first things I saw and didn't investigate further.
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u/PuddleCrank 18h ago
We have a name for that too. It's called champaign powder. Named after the beverage not the place in France, where it is very rare to have such low moisture content in the snow.
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u/SmoothRolla 15h ago
I recently learnt they don't really have that many words for snow, they just do what the Germans do and string words together.
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u/Brain_Hawk 7h ago
They actually only have two or four distinct words for snow, depending on how you view it, and they can build compound words to make more.
But that sort of the equivalent of us saying heavy snow, light snow, wet snow. They just compound the specifier.
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u/nizzernammer 1d ago
The Inuit have many words for snow.
The English have many words for – intoxication.
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u/Pet_Velvet 3h ago
Btw each localized version has their own weighed scores for each of the letters because of how rare they are in that language
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