Consett has a unique reputation for being the first to get the worst of weathers.. but I also argue that we get fresh weather and never suffer floods. However, because we are so high above sea level, we have handled more than our fair share of winter snow.
My mother called a big snowstorm, a ”hap up” and my grandmother was always right when she said that she could smell snow in the air!
For the people of Greenland, northern Norway and Sweden, snow is so familiar that they have 20 words for “snow”. These indigenous people were known as Eskimos and Lapplanders many years ago but they see these titles as derogatory (Lapp in Swedish means tatters or rags), so that we now refer to them as Inuits and Sami.
The Sami dictionary has a wonderful way of identifying the many ways that snow defines their outside world, even though it is used by only a few hundred people. The words reflect the way of life for the Sami, as they track wild life, ride on sleighs and look after their reindeer.
How magical and romantic is “vocca”..fresh snow that’s so loose, it gets blown away in the wind.
However, if it keeps blowing it becomes Piqsirpog.. drifting snow , (we might call this a white out.).creating qimugsug..a snow drift!
Qanik means snow in the air (snowflake)…perhaps they can smell it as my grandmother could?
put means snow on the ground but Ååining is freshly fallen snow on bare ground…
Why do they need this special word? Because it describes so accurately, the type of snow which helps to follow the tracks of wild game.
Vasme is a thin layer of fresh snow.
Muovia is very soft snow where skis can sink into it.
Seell is snow so soft from top to bottom.
Rine is thick snow on tree branches.
Syeyngis is snow that’s so soft a grazing reindeer can dig through.
Igluksaq means building material eg of an igloo
Then there’s the words for snow that manages to stay for much longer!…..solkka is tramped down, hard snow and skålvi is a hard, high snow dune.
Purga is a light snowstorm and Kolssa is a hard smooth snowfield.
Çuanguj is frozen crust of snow and Kamadoh is a crust of snow in springtime which cracks when driven over by a sleigh.
Ceeyvi is snow hardened by a strong wind so strong that reindeer cannot forage through it for food…similar to this is a çearga , a thin hard layer of snow…caused by the wind blowing away the top loose layer.
Cyehi is hard ice from autumnal rain that has frozen solid and lavkke is snow that falls on black ice which makes reindeer slip and slide.
Senjes is pure snow that becomes hard and brittle under a layer of new hard snow.
Although we may not need all these names..let’s face it… we don’t have sleighs and reindeer! But there is one common feature with snow…yes it’s slush!!
Sohma is slush, on top of ice, which makes for danger, and Sleatta, wet melting snow.
I think our word “slush” is perhaps the most poetical, as it describes in sound, the impact of wellies plunging into it, and also means that the air has warmed up to melt the snow so that Spring is on its way!!
We think snow is snow but how grand to have another 19 words we could use!
Perhaps Consett could qualify to use some Sami words for our dreaded winters…and perhaps it may take on a more romantic side of winter as we look out for lavkke to save some broken bones, or just enjoy the picturesque landscape of rine and vasme.
One thing that makes our winter different is that we don’t build Igloosag (igloos) but the Samis haven’t a word for snowmen and snowball fights!….and that’s something we like to do in a “hap up” as it is fun for young and old!
