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Charles Kemp, Professor, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne

Do Inuit languages really have many words for snow? The most interesting finds from our study of 616 languages

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Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily.

So perhaps it’s no surprise different languages highlight different areas of vocabulary. Scholars have noted that Mongolian has many horse-related words, that Maori has many words for ferns, and Japanese has many words related to taste.

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