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Languages offer a glimpse into the cultures and priorities of their speakers, acting as reflections of everyday life and values. It’s fascinating to observe how distinctly different languages emphasize various aspects of vocabulary. For instance, Mongolian has a rich array of terms related to horses, while Maori features a plethora of words for ferns, and the Japanese language is abundant in terms focused on taste.
Some of these associations seem obvious, such as the abundance of beer-related terms in German or many fish-related words in Fijian. Linguist Paul Zinsli even documented numerous Swiss-German words linked to mountains in his extensive work.
In a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we investigated the connections between languages and concepts on a broader scale.
Utilizing computational techniques, we identified distinctive vocabulary areas that underscore the cultural and linguistic variation across languages. Our research contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate ties between language and culture.
Methodology
Our research assessed 163 connections between languages and ideas sourced from extensive linguistic literature.
We developed a comprehensive digital dataset encompassing 1574 bilingual dictionaries that translate between English and 616 languages. Due to copyright restrictions on many of these dictionaries, we accessed only usage counts of particular words.
For example, in examining the concept of “horse,” we found that French, German, Kazakh, and Mongolian led the pack in vocabulary richness. Dictionaries from these languages contained a higher frequency of words associated with horses, such as the Mongolian term аргамаг, meaning “a good racing or riding horse,” and чөдөрлөх, which means “to hobble a horse.”
However, we must consider that the word counts might be skewed by instances of “horse,” appearing in example sentences for unrelated terms.
Dispelling Myths
Our findings largely validate previous assertions made by scholars, notably that Hindi contains numerous words for love and that Japanese features extensive terminology related to duty and obligation.
An area of particular interest for us was the long-debated assertion regarding Inuit languages possessing a wealth of words for snow—a claim that has often been exaggerated and ridiculed, termed the “great Eskimo vocabulary hoax” by some linguists.
Contrary to that skepticism, our research indicates that the vocabulary around snow in Inuit languages is indeed remarkable. Among our dataset of 616 languages, Eastern Canadian Inuktitut scored highest for the term “snow.” The two other Inuit languages included in our study, Western Canadian Inuktitut and North Alaskan Inupiatun, also ranked favorably for “snow” terminology.
The dataset features words from Eastern Canadian Inuktitut such as kikalukpok, meaning “noisy walking on hard snow,” and apingaut, meaning “first snow fall.”
Additionally, the list of the top languages for “snow” included several Alaskan languages, such as Ahtena and Central Alaskan Yupik, alongside Japanese and Scots, which possesses terms like doon-lay (a heavy fall of snow) and feughter (a sudden, slight fall of snow).
Our findings can be further explored using the interactive tool we developed, allowing users to discover the predominant languages for various concepts and vice versa.
Language and Environmental Factors
Interestingly, while the top-ranking languages for “snow” are predominantly from snowy regions, the highest scores for “rain” do not always correlate with areas of excessive rainfall.
For example, languages like Nyanja, East Taa, and Shona from South Africa—an area with a moderate rainfall level—feature many terms associated with rain. This is likely due to rain being intrinsically linked to human survival, prompting discussions surrounding it even in times of drought.
In the context of East Taa speakers, rain is both scarce and desirable, which is reflected in terms such as lábe ||núu-bâ, an honorific address to thunder to invoke rain, and |qába, which denotes the ritual sprinkling of water or urine to encourage rainfall.
Moreover, our tool can facilitate exploration of other concepts associated with perception (e.g., “smell”), emotions (e.g., “love”), and cultural motifs (e.g., “ghost”).
When analyzing “smell,” for example, Oceanic languages, including Marshallese, exhibited a range of specific terms like jatbo (the smell of damp clothing) and meļļā (the smell of blood)—areas that received scant focus prior to our study.
Considerations and Limitations
Although our analysis reveals intriguing relationships between languages and their associated concepts, results should be approached with caution and cross-referenced against original dictionaries where feasible.
For instance, the most frequently identified concepts in Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German)—words such as “of,” “the,” and “and”—offer little insight into cultural nuances. We have made efforts to filter out equivalent common words across languages, notably through Wiktionary, but some prevalent words in Plautdietsch remained in our analysis.
Moreover, the word counts may reflect both definitions and additional elements, including illustrative sentences. While we have attempted to exclude particularly common terms (like “woman” or “father”), it is possible that such words still impacted our findings.
Critically, adhering strictly to our results risks the misrepresentation of linguistic diversity and could contribute to reinforcing negative stereotypes. As such, it is vital to exercise caution and respect in the use of our findings. The concepts highlighted for any language offer, at most, a rudimentary view of the cultures connected to that language.
For further details: Temuulen Khishigsuren et al, A computational analysis of lexical elaboration across languages, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2417304122
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phys.org