The Great Myth

Being that I am verging on having a degree in Linguistics, I realized it would be best to touch on the subject from time to time, simply for the benefit of sharing (and clarifying for myself) a few of the interesting topics the subject has to offer.
So I elected to begin with one of the most popular topics in Linguistics: the myth of the number of words for snow in Inuit (Eskimo) languages. It seems like everyone has heard it, and loves to quote it. According to the myth, Inuit languages have anywhere between 20 and 100 words for snow, depending on who's telling the story. Sounds cool, but, sorry to break it to ya, it's simply not true.
First, just to clarify, there are a number of Eskimo-Aluet languages, the family of languages to which Inuit belongs. So depending on which specific language you look at, the explanation will vary. But, since this forum is reasonably informal, I will generalize.
So, to begin with, Inuit languages are polysynthetic languages. Simply put, this means they can say in one word what English speakers would say in one sentence. They start with a root word, and then stick other lexical or grammatical items onto it, making one long word. This is from where the misunderstanding stems.
Many Inuit languages have several root words for snow, just like English: slush, blizzard, drift. (Whenever this myth is being told, the fact that English itself has several different words for snow is usually left out.) Then, to these roots, through suffixation, different adjectives/nouns can be attached.
Language Log gives a good conclusion:
"That does not mean there are huge numbers of unrelated basic terms for huge numbers of finely differentiated snow types. It means that the notion of fixing a number of snow words, or even a definition of what a word for snow would be, is meaningless for these languages. You could write down not just thousands but millions of words built from roots that refer to snow if you had the time. But they would all be derivatives of a fairly small number of roots."
The Wikipedia article is a good continuation of the topic, Eskimo Words for Snow, if you're interested.
The moral of the story? Don't think that languages are purely based on words!