Similarly, words that refer to ice are not limited to the ten basic forms mentioned in Schneider's dictionary. Another example is sitilluqaaq ('a recent solid mass'), which applies to a drift of hard snow that formed after a storm. In the vocabulary related to snow, if the word qanik refers to falling snow, qanittaq ('added snow') refers to freshly fallen snow. New words can therefore easily be created from base terms. Inuktitut is a language that is said to be agglutinative its words generally comprise a base element (the radical), which provides the basic meaning, plus other elements (the affixes) added to clarify and/or modify the basic meaning. In the same way, the word illusaq ('what can become a house') refers to any construction material (wood, stone, brick, etc.), but when an igloo is built, it applies precisely to snow that is rigid and maneuverable enough for erecting a semi-spherical house made of snow blocks. This is a general term that refers to any type of soft ground (mud, wetland, quicksand) but which, in winter, can only apply to a soft snow cover where the foot sinks. In Nunavik, for instance, it is possible to call maujaq the snow in which one sinks. There are in fact several other ways to describe the various forms they can take. Nevertheless, this assertion is superficial, since the few basic words used by the Inuit to refer to different types of snow or ice do not translate everything they can say about these two natural elements. Many will argue that French and English, as used in the cold regions of North America or Europe, have as many words as Inuktitut to speak about snow or ice. This is a far cry from the 52 terms or more mentioned by some. So, how exactly do things stand? In his dictionary of the Inuktitut dialect of Nunavik (Arctic Québec), the linguist and missionary Lucien Schneider ( Ulirnaisugutiit: An Inuktitut-English Dictionary of Northern Quebec, Labrador and Eastern Arctic Dialects, 1985) cites a dozen basic words (those that are not derived from another word) referring to snow, and about ten words referring to ice. This belief in a high number of words for snow and ice has been sharply criticized by a large number of linguists and anthropologists.

Anthropologist John Steckley, in his book White Lies about the Inuit (2007), notes that many often cite 52 as the number of different terms in Inuktitut.

It is often said that the Inuit have dozens of words to refer to snow and ice.

Icy landscape synonym