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"Igloo" is an English word. It doesn't have the exact same meaning as the Inuit word it's derived from. And snow is a type of ice.

by mrob 10y ago

Turing_Machine 10y ago
'"Igloo" is an English word." No, it is not. "And snow is a type of ice." No, it is not. Snow (of the type used to construct shelters) is a mixture of ice crystals and air. The air is extremely important for the purpose under discussion. Snow is a pretty good insulator. Ice is not. Also, "Inuit" is the name of only one group of people. Using their name for (say) Yup'ik is like calling an Italian or Romanian "French" just because they all speak a Romance language.
- mrob 10y ago
  Of course it is. People will think you're crazy if you call a wood frame house an igloo. An igloo is not an ᐃᒡᓗ, just like a mansion is not a マンション. And while insulation is an important property of snow, for the purposes of the discussion where we were talking about melting not insulation, "ice" is a good word to use. Snow is made of ice, so this is 100% correct. And "Inuit" is absolutely the correct name for the closely related languages/dialects shared by several groups of native Alaskan/Canadian/Greenlandic peoples. I realize the distinction between language and dialect is politically contentious, but speakers of Inuit from close geographical areas have excellent mutual comprehension, so it is not similar to your Italian/Romanian example. As Wikipedia says "Outside Inuit culture, however, igloo refers exclusively to shelters constructed from blocks of compacted snow, generally in the form of a dome."
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    "And "Inuit" is absolutely the correct name for the closely related languages/dialects shared by several groups of native Alaskan/Canadian/Greenlandic peoples." No, it absolutely is not. Yup'ik is not Inuit. It is not mutually intelligible with any dialect of Inuit. The Yup'ik languages split from Inuit around a thousand years ago (i.e., just about as long ago as Romanian, Spanish, etc. split from Latin). The correct name for the language group is Eskimo–Aleut. Not "Inuit". I realize that it's become fashionable in Canada to simply ignore Yup'ik and Aleut people and just call everybody "Inuit". However, Canada isn't the whole world. Neither professional linguists (source: Wikipedia article below) nor the people themselves (source: I live in Alaska and actually know Alaska Native people) consider Inuit the "correct name" for all Eskimo-Aleut languages. While an Iñupiat person might not get pissed off at you for calling him an "Inuit" (even thought they don't call themselves that) a Yup'ik person probably would. Just as an Italian would be upset by being called "French". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languages
    - mrob 10y ago
      Inuit language is a subset of Eskimo-Aleut language. Yup'ik language and Aleut language are also subsets of Eskimo-Aleut language. I was unable to find any evidence that Yup'ik or Aleut people traditionally built snow houses. I can't rule out that some of them did, but it has no relevance to the English word "igloo", which is derived from the Inuit language subset of Eskimo-Aleut, not the Yup'ik language or Aleut language subsets of Eskimo-Aleut.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    "Snow is made of ice, so this is 100% correct." Build a shelter out of ice instead of snow and you'd learn the difference in a hurry.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  There's a strong argument to be made for OP's statements. http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=igloo http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=igl... "igloo" is a word, like "hamburger" or "silhouette" or "denim" or "thug", which has passed into general English use. Just as "hamburger" doesn't mean "a resident of Hamburg", "silhoette" doesn't mean "a penny-pinching finance minister of France", "denim" doesn't mean "from Nimes", and "thug" doesn't refer specifically to "an Indian religious assassin", "igloo" as used in English doesn't mean simply "house", but rather, a dome-shaped structure made of snow blocks. Which, incidentally, makes the title here clickbait through misrepresentative word use. Mind: words may still exist and have independent meanings in their original tongues. This doesn't preclude them from having other meanings, sometimes closely related, sometimes not, in other languages. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=igloo&allowed_in_frame=0 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=igloo&allowed_in_fr...
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    "There's a strong argument to be made for OP's statements." He claimed that igloos are made of "ice". That is not correct. At all.
    - mrob 10y ago
      Igloos are made of snow. Snow is made of ice. By the transitive property of "made of", igloos are made of ice. As the specific properties of snow are of no relevance to the discussion, saying they are made of ice is entirely reasonable use of language. Your claim is as nonsensical as saying a bottle isn't made of hydrocarbons because it's actually made of plastic. If we were talking about the mechanical properties then "plastic" would be appropriate. But if we were talking about peak oil, "hydrocarbons" would be more appropriate. But both are correct and making the suboptimal choice is merely a matter of style. In this discussion we are talking about melting, so I claim that "ice" is good style. You might think it bad style, but going as far as calling it incorrect makes you factually wrong.

"Igloo" is an English word. It doesn't have the exact same meaning as the Inuit word it's derived from. And snow is a type of ice.

by mrob 10y ago

"Igloo" is an English word. It doesn't have the exact same meaning as the Inuit word it's derived from. And snow is a type of ice.

Turing_Machine 10y ago

'"Igloo" is an English word." No, it is not. "And snow is a type of ice." No, it is not. Snow (of the type used to construct shelters) is a mixture of ice crystals and air. The air is extremely important for the purpose under discussion. Snow is a pretty good insulator. Ice is not. Also, "Inuit" is the name of only one group of people. Using their name for (say) Yup'ik is like calling an Italian or Romanian "French" just because they all speak a Romance language.

mrob 10y ago
Of course it is. People will think you're crazy if you call a wood frame house an igloo. An igloo is not an ᐃᒡᓗ, just like a mansion is not a マンション. And while insulation is an important property of snow, for the purposes of the discussion where we were talking about melting not insulation, "ice" is a good word to use. Snow is made of ice, so this is 100% correct. And "Inuit" is absolutely the correct name for the closely related languages/dialects shared by several groups of native Alaskan/Canadian/Greenlandic peoples. I realize the distinction between language and dialect is politically contentious, but speakers of Inuit from close geographical areas have excellent mutual comprehension, so it is not similar to your Italian/Romanian example. As Wikipedia says "Outside Inuit culture, however, igloo refers exclusively to shelters constructed from blocks of compacted snow, generally in the form of a dome."
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  "And "Inuit" is absolutely the correct name for the closely related languages/dialects shared by several groups of native Alaskan/Canadian/Greenlandic peoples." No, it absolutely is not. Yup'ik is not Inuit. It is not mutually intelligible with any dialect of Inuit. The Yup'ik languages split from Inuit around a thousand years ago (i.e., just about as long ago as Romanian, Spanish, etc. split from Latin). The correct name for the language group is Eskimo–Aleut. Not "Inuit". I realize that it's become fashionable in Canada to simply ignore Yup'ik and Aleut people and just call everybody "Inuit". However, Canada isn't the whole world. Neither professional linguists (source: Wikipedia article below) nor the people themselves (source: I live in Alaska and actually know Alaska Native people) consider Inuit the "correct name" for all Eskimo-Aleut languages. While an Iñupiat person might not get pissed off at you for calling him an "Inuit" (even thought they don't call themselves that) a Yup'ik person probably would. Just as an Italian would be upset by being called "French". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languages
  - mrob 10y ago
    Inuit language is a subset of Eskimo-Aleut language. Yup'ik language and Aleut language are also subsets of Eskimo-Aleut language. I was unable to find any evidence that Yup'ik or Aleut people traditionally built snow houses. I can't rule out that some of them did, but it has no relevance to the English word "igloo", which is derived from the Inuit language subset of Eskimo-Aleut, not the Yup'ik language or Aleut language subsets of Eskimo-Aleut.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  "Snow is made of ice, so this is 100% correct." Build a shelter out of ice instead of snow and you'd learn the difference in a hurry.
dredmorbius 10y ago
There's a strong argument to be made for OP's statements. http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=igloo http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=igl... "igloo" is a word, like "hamburger" or "silhouette" or "denim" or "thug", which has passed into general English use. Just as "hamburger" doesn't mean "a resident of Hamburg", "silhoette" doesn't mean "a penny-pinching finance minister of France", "denim" doesn't mean "from Nimes", and "thug" doesn't refer specifically to "an Indian religious assassin", "igloo" as used in English doesn't mean simply "house", but rather, a dome-shaped structure made of snow blocks. Which, incidentally, makes the title here clickbait through misrepresentative word use. Mind: words may still exist and have independent meanings in their original tongues. This doesn't preclude them from having other meanings, sometimes closely related, sometimes not, in other languages. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=igloo&allowed_in_frame=0 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=igloo&allowed_in_fr...
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  "There's a strong argument to be made for OP's statements." He claimed that igloos are made of "ice". That is not correct. At all.
  - mrob 10y ago
    Igloos are made of snow. Snow is made of ice. By the transitive property of "made of", igloos are made of ice. As the specific properties of snow are of no relevance to the discussion, saying they are made of ice is entirely reasonable use of language. Your claim is as nonsensical as saying a bottle isn't made of hydrocarbons because it's actually made of plastic. If we were talking about the mechanical properties then "plastic" would be appropriate. But if we were talking about peak oil, "hydrocarbons" would be more appropriate. But both are correct and making the suboptimal choice is merely a matter of style. In this discussion we are talking about melting, so I claim that "ice" is good style. You might think it bad style, but going as far as calling it incorrect makes you factually wrong.