5.3: Focal Vocabularies

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) - A Saami family,Norway, 1897

Every language has a lexicon, or vocabulary. Semantics is the study of a language meaning system. Anthropologists are particularly interested in ethnosemantics, which is the study of semantics within a specific cultural context. Ethnosemantics helps anthropologists understand how people perceive, define, and classify their world. Focal vocabularies are sets of words that pertain to important aspects of the culture. For example, the Saami, the indigenous reindeer hunters in Scandinavia, have numerous words for reindeer, snow, and ice. Snow and ice terminology is based on the physical condition of the layers as well as changes due to weather and temperature. Reindeer terminology is based primarily on sex, age, color, and appearance of various body parts, but may be based on others things such as personality and habits.

Table 5 - Saami Reindeer terminology based on personality and habits (Magga 2006)

Biltu	Shy and wild, usually refers to females
Doalli	Apt to resist
Goaisu	Male reindeer who keeps apart all summer and is very fat when autumn comes
Já?as	Obstinate, difficult to lead
Láiddas	Easy to lead by a rope or rein
Lojat	Very tractable driving-reindeer
Lojáš	Very tame female reindeer
Láiddot	Reindeer which is very láiddas
Moggaraš	Female reindeer who slips the lasso over head in order to avoid being caught
Njirru	Female reindeer which is very unmanageable and difficult to hold when tied
Ravdaboazu	Reindeer which keeps itself to the edge of the herd
Sarat	Smallish male reindeer which chases a female out of the herd in order to mate with it
Šlohtur	Reindeer which hardly lifts its feet
Stoalut	Reindeer which is no longer afraid of the dog

Table 6 - Saami Terminology for Condition and Layers of Snow (Magga 2006)

Čahki	Hard lump of snow; hard snowball
Geardni	Thin crust of snow
Gska-geardi	Layer of crust
Gaska-skárta	Hard layer of crust
Goahpálat	The kind of snowstorm in which the snow falls thickly and sticks to things
Guoldu	A cloud of snow which blows up from the ground when there is a hard frost without very much wind
Luotkku	Loose snow
Moarri	Brittle crust of snow; thin crust of ice
Njáhcu	Thaw
Ruokna	Thin hard crust of ice on snow
Seanaš	Granular snow at the bottom of the layer of snow
Skárta	Thin layer of snow frozen on to the ground
Skáva	Very thin layer of frozen snow
Skávvi	Crust of ice on snow, formed in the evening after the sun has thawed the top of the snow during the day
Soavli	Very wet, slushy snow, snow-slush
Skoavdi	Empty space between snow and the ground
Vahca	Loose snow, especially new snow on the top of a layer of older snow or on a road with snow on it

References

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