It is still coming down here and elsewhere. A friend new-settled far from home sends satellite images of Britain alhvítt, the hilly west buried under drifts of nyf. Elsewhere: snjór, Schnee, sneg. Apparently it is an old word, derived only from itself and not from some root meaning "white" or "cold" or "winter." Elemental. Basic.
People who like to theorize such things like to place cold and heavy clouds over the original homeland of the original speakers, and then work out where it lay with the weather report in hand. I don't think I believe in that country anymore. I'm not sure I believe in the language of original speakers.
Let the kinship of tongues be enough without elevating their originals above the now. We can all be equally at home (or abroad) in our different snowy places.
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language seems to run free in every direction
and even meanings cannot be fixed for very long
Too true. Thanks for dropping by, Tristan.
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