They say that the Inuit have 50 words to describe snow. Well in Japan, where it rains a lot and people love to talk about the weather, the Japanese language has over 50 nouns for rain. There’s rain showers, weak rain, light rain, fine rain, misty rain, heavy rain, intense rain, downpour, localized downpour, chilly rain, rain and snow, rain at night, spring rain, and 2 words for early summer rain, as well as autumn rain.
Japanese design troupe nendo (previously) chose just 20 words for rain and artistically captured each in a water bottle. They used clear acrylic bottles to create delicate dioramas to illustrate the different types of rain. The installation was on display earlier this month at Maison & Objet in Paris, where the designers had been asked to consider the relationship between language and design for the “word” themed exhibition.
mizore (霙) meaning rain mixed with snow
left: niwaka-ame (俄雨) meaning a sudden rainfall
left: kisame (樹雨) meaning rain that falls off tree branches | right: shigure (時雨) meaning autumn rain
source: mocoloco
September 17, 2014 at 8:20 am
This is a lovely story, but it would be nice to change the phrase you use for the indigenous tribe story about the words for snow. Eskimo is not particularly nice, and was considered an insulting phrase for the tribe in question. Innuit is much better. Such a nice essay ought to not start on such a jarring note.
September 17, 2014 at 9:34 am
@Kimberly – please excuse my ignorance. I had no idea. I incorporated your suggestion 🙂
September 19, 2014 at 8:18 am
I find this so interesting. I stumbled upon a link to this site while on a German blog–I’m fascinated by languages and love learning about how a culture helps form the words of a language. Really beautiful exhibition idea. Thanks for sharing!