Until recently, I believed that the Eskimos held the record for possessing the most diverse range of words to describe snow. However, I came across an article recently that was about a study carried out at the University of Glasgow, compiling the first-ever historical thesaurus of Scottish words – to date they have logged over 421 terms for snow. In fact, they are actually appealing for people to submit words to them that they have had passed down through their families for further study.
I always found it fascinating that there could be so many words that the Eskimos have to describe such a simple thing as snow, but I fully understood, as there are so many types of snow that can fall – plus, it makes sense to a people as affected by the changing weather as they are, where a mistake can cost them their lives.
However, I am amazed at the diversity of the Scottish language – that there would be this many words to describe snow. I know, from my own experience living in Aberdeen for over six years, that there are a wide range of interesting and unusual words used, not only locally, but also across the rest of Scotland (in colloquial terms, Gaelic and Doric), but this latest revelation has really amazed me. To have this amount of words over such a small country just goes to show the rich history of this place and the broad range of culture and heritage that Scotland has to offer.
Here is a link to the article in case you wish to see more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-34323967
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