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Keep it simple (lemmy.ca)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yes, you can explain anything in any language - for some languages you can just take shortcuts

Along these lines, some languages have a preference for longer or shorter words. There's an oft repeated factoid that the Inuit language has something like 50 words for snow. That's not entirely untrue, but it ignores that the language tends to have unique words that encompass more concepts. So whereas English would combine other words in a phrase to produce concepts like "soft deep snow", the Inuit language has an entire word. It's not like Inuit has special descriptive powers. It just takes up vocabulary space for concepts that could be mix-and-match instead.