Dale Wisely

THE LANGUAGE OF WINTER AND LOVE

The Inuit dialect,

spoken in Canada's

Nunavik region,

has at least 53 words

for snow,

including "matsaauti,'

for wet snow

that can be used

to ice a sleigh's runners.

A tutorial on how to say

"I love you" in French

requires five steps,

the fourth of which

instructs the reader

on the addition of

"ma chérie" or "mon chéri"

for "my darling."

Men and women in regions

of Indiana and Ohio

have at least nine

words or phrases

to refer to the remote control

for a fireplace. One of those

is "InfraLog Igniter 3000."

But, informally, and

addressed to an intimate,

one might hear an American say,

"Hey, how about handing me

the fireclicker, Girl-Baby?"

Dale Wisely edits Right Hand Pointing, One Sentence Poems, and White Knuckle. He is a psychologist in the Deep South.