Winter's Coming

beautiful frost
winter's coming :(

I am jealous. you have snow.

please don't go messing with this post because it's a great series.

zimaaaaa!

great stuff as always.

thank you.

Dhamaka, winter's coming :)

swamprose, da! :D

is that word zimma the same as Czech - meaning winter and cold depending on context?

I'm pretty sure the word for winter is the same in all the Slavic languages. The season is too important to allow alternative readings

i can hear the crunch of the frost

interesting

i'll second that bfish (Czech Slovak, Polish, Russian...)
season's too cold to have to think of different names for it - especially in eastern Europe! :)

:)
out of pure curiosity I just checked Ukrainian and Bulgarian - yes, also zima

and a can I stay simplistic and say that having the same word mean both winter and cold is a cultural thing.... because winter is so incredibly cold? Or is that naive because the context is important for many similar words? For example does the word for summer also mean warm or does it have another meaning or does it vary between countries in a way that winter doesn't?

I can only speak for Russian language here: "winter" and "cold" are two different words. you can use "winter" for "cold", but only in the most figurative sense.

The more important the subject is, the more words there are to describe it, not the otherwise. for example, I can think of at least 6 nouns to name falling snow in Russian. I know that Chukchi have a few dozen words for that.

thank you :)

I know that English has by far more words for different shades of red than Russian. I wonder why

I could speculate, but don't actually know...

I'm now wondering if a language where word meanings aren't modified in a big way by context must necessarily have more words to compensate.. For example while a writer might use red to denote the colour without emotive context, you get scarlet women, crimson skies and blood but I've never heard of a scarlet sky and if you say a person's crimson it normally implies they're so embarrassed they're blushing

sorry, I don't think, I understand :)
to compensate what?

there are a few more words for red in Russian, but mostly it is just "red". And if I need to be more specific I have to go comparing: blood red, raspberry red, bordeaux wine red, etc...

well... maybe if you can't change meanings significantly by context your language just gives you more words in the first place?

(could well be talking rubbish here - it was just speculation)

my God, guys.. I read you and these words blow out my brains! I have no more brains! no more, no brains. they were grey like a sky before rain, like an asphalt during the rain, like a grey kellion paved with grey stones!!!!!!

Your brains?

Try translating this: scarlet, vermilion, crimson, incarnadine, maroon, sepia, sienna, cerise, mauve, rose, puce.

SHOOT EM UP! ALL!!!

I've met philologists before, and I can totally agree with you.

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