how many words do Eskimos have for snow?

from the Week in Review:

PERHAPS no fact is more revealing about Iraq’s history than this: The Iraqis have a word that means to utterly defeat and humiliate someone by dragging his corpse through the streets.

source:
Iraq's Curse: A Thirst for Final, Crushing Victory ($)

Up until the moment I read this observation I would have said PERHAPS no fact is more revealing about Iraq's history than this: The Iraqis do not have any songs about Iraq.

When I first read the song factoid - apparently the Iraqis have never written or sung songs about Iraq - I thought: hoo boy. Keeping Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis together in one country is not going to be easy.

But I think having a word for defeating and humiliating an enemy by dragging his body through the streets probably trumps not having a national anthem.

The word is sahel, btw.

...................

Has "Eskimo" fallen out of favor?

Are we supposed to say "Inuit"?


update from Andy Lange:

This is cool: Languages of Iraq

If there's one thing I've learned from reading Language Log, it is to be suspicious of language-related claims, especially from sources such as the NY Times.

For example, saying "the Iraqis have a word" is somewhere between meaningless and outright misdirection, as there are three primary languages spoken in Iraq:

• Kurdish

• Mesopotamian Spoken Arabic

• Standard Arabic

and, from Vlorbik:

what andy said.

elaboration:
geoffrey pullum, a founder of langlog,
wrote _the_great_eskimo_vocabulary_hoax_
in the days before blogs.
(usually does the best entries
in langlog, too.)