The Guardian today links to an article at the University of Toronto website about the myth that the Eskimo language (Inuktitut) has 200 words for snow.

Other researchers have noted that Whorf originally focused not on how many words for ‘snow’ there were, but instead on the fact that there was no single word equivalent to the broad meaning of English ‘snow.’

There are no specific words for fish, bear or people either, only for specific kinds of them. The Guardian adds:

the real gem here is the inclusion of the Labrador dialect word meaning ‘I thought I would never go to jail’: pannanaitsimavilialautsimaniagasugilautsimalaungilanga.

Via Carob (not a blog):
The International Trademark Association has a list of trademarks to help authors know when to capitalize things and how to punctuate them. This could be useful. I particularly like the possibility of getting generic terms.

Here’s a bit (hmm, where’s ‘Google’?)

Gold Top mantles for lanterns
Golf automobiles
Goobers chocolate covered peanuts
Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval certification Good Humor ice cream
Good & Plenty candy
Goodyear tires, blimp
Gordon’s gin and vodka
Gore-Tex water repellent fabric, outerwear
Gorham china, silverware, stemware, crystal
Got Milk? Milk Association slogan
Graduate Record Examinations tests, educational software (also GRE)
Graduates toddler foods
Grand Marnier cordials
GrandMa’s cookies
Grand Ole Opry country music program
Grape-Nuts cereal
GravyMaster seasonings

I suppose it’s only the ones used in English. After all, for example, Tippex in German is always capitalized. Is it purely US, with no British examples? It says 170 countries belong.

I will probably not be blogging until the new year now. Unlike some, however, I do have a good chance of experiencing some snökaos, both German and English.

The ABA Journal for December mentions two humorous law firm sites.

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan have a cartoon, called ‘Interviewing 101’. Click on the cartoon figure.

Powers Philips in Denver has such a witty site that it’s hard to believe it’s serious. It goes too far for my taste!

Powers Phillips, P.C., is a small law firm located in downtown Denver, Colorado within convenient walking distance of over fifty bars and a couple of doughnut shops. Powers Phillips also maintains a small satellite office-in-exile on the cow-covered hillsides near Carbondale, Colorado, where it puts out to pasture some of its aging attorneys.

Someone has inherited some houses and wants to sell them. From today’s Nürnberger Nachrichten:

(From an inheritance in Nuremberg, 2 houses, each with 1 bar and 11 apartments, in the red light district, to be sold cheap. For details write to Chiffre 6 391 391)

IPKAT reports that three Thuringian sausages have been registered to protect their designation of origin. I presume others, such as the Nuremberg ones, are long since protected.

The EU regulation does not translate them, but IPKAT does: Thüringer Leberwurst (Thuringian liver sausage), Thüringer Rotwurst (Thuringian red sausage) and Thüringer Rostbratwurst (Thuringian rib steak sausage).

Liver sausage is OK – for spreading; Rotwurst might be blood sausage (Collins says black pudding, but there are German Rotwürste that come already cooked, and black pudding doesn’t); but the third is mystifying. Rost is the grid or grating you lay the sausages on to grill them. Collins has for Rostbratwurst ‘barbecue sausage’. Fair enough – those gratings are used at barbecues. This is a fairly pale sausage. I found a recipe online using pork shoulder and pork belly (I thought it was veal). But here is more information from the application to the EU:

Name: Thüringer Rostbratwurst
4.2. Description: At least 15 to 20 cm long, medium-fine grilled sausage in narrow natural casing(pig’s gut or sheep’s casing), raw or stewed, with highly spiced taste; …
Composition: coarsely trimmed pigmeat, pork cheek without rind, possibly also trimmed veal orbeef for the filling, not cured; the spice mixtures vary with the handed-down recipes and regionalcharacteristics; along with salt and pepper, caraway, marjoram and garlic are also used.
At least 51 % of the ingredients originate in Thuringia.
Geographical area: the Federal Land of Thuringia.
4.4. Proof of origin: Thuringian Rostbratwurst has a centuries-old tradition. The first documentary reference to it dates from 1404. The Rudolstadt State archives contain a bill from the Arnstadt Virgin Mary Cloister which includes the item ‘darme czu bratwurstin’ (Bratwurst casings). Theoldest known recipe can be found in the Weimar State archives. It is from the ‘Ordnung für das Fleischerhandwerk zu Weimar, Jena und Buttstädt’ of 2 July 1613. There is another recipe in the‘Thüringisch-Erfurtische Kochbuch’, dating from 1797. Today almost all Thuringian meat and sausage producers carry Thüringer Rostbratwurst in their range; it can be obtained anywhere in Thuringia at special hotdog stands. The provenance of the name has been retained, because at thetime of the former GDRit was used only as a genuine indication of geographical origin.4.5. Method of production: The meat is coarsely trimmed, derinded and ground medium-fine. Thespices are then added and everything is mixed to a cohesive mass which is filled into natural pig orsheep casings. The sausages are twisted off at a length of some 20 cm and then cooked at 75 °Cfor one minute per millimetre diameter. The sausage is sold fresh.4.6. Link: Thüringer Rostbratwurst is a product with a centuries-old tradition. It was appreciated by Martin Luther and Goethe and praised in literature as long ago as 1669 (in Grimmelshausen’s‘Simplizissimus’). Owing to its unmistakable, excellent flavour Thüringer Rostbratwurst today enjoys a good reputation in Germany and beyond

I do wonder who introduced the term ‘hot dog stands’ in there.