The Editor,
Journal of Glaciology
Sir,
“But now, Socrates, what do you think all this amounts to? It is mere scrapings and shavings of discourse as 1 said a while ago, divided into bits”
Plato, Hippias major, 304A,
quoted in Reference KierkegaardKierkegaard (1846), back of title-page
In his letter, Reference WeidickWeidick (1967) gives a good account of the origin of the term Indlandsisen as applied to the ice which covers the whole of Greenland. He demands that this term, and also its translations (Inland Ice, Inlandeis, Indlandsis) should be exclusively applied in the future to the ice cover of Greenland. I think that this demand is somewhat exaggerated.
First let us note that the Danish term Indlandsisen is applied to the ice of Greenland thanks to Dr. Rink, who first had the general idea of the origin and development of this immense glacier which covers Greenland. But Indlandsisen means ice of the interior, ice in the middle of the land, continental ice (glace continentale) according to the usage employed by F. Reference JohnstrupJohnstrup (1890).
This phenomenon exists not only in Greenland but also in the Antarctic. It also existed during past geological eras in Fenno-Scandia, North America, the Sahara, South Africa, etc. during the ice ages. It is thus legitimate to use this term for the same phenomenon in other parts of the world than Greenland, and I consider that we are honouring the Danish geographer Rink in using his term Indlandsisen.
Further this term can easily be translated into English (Inland Ice) and German (Inlanders). We may note that Ice Sheet has a more general meaning than Inland Ice, and is not a synonym. If the Danish term and its translations can only be used for the ice cover of Greenland, what are we to call the other continental ice covers? Furthermore, Weidick should give a translation, exclusively for Greenland, of Indlandsisen in all other languages such as Russian, Chinese, etc.
In French there is no literal translation and as the term glace continentale is not very happy, for more than half a century Inlandsis has been used. Petit Larousse gives the following definition:
Inlandsis n.m. (mot norvég., de in, dans, land, pays, et is, glace). Glacier continental des régions polaires recouvrant le relief et se terminant à sa périphérie par des glaciers de vallée qui atteignent la mer, ou par une barrière de glace. SYN.: calotte glaciaire.
We may criticize barrière and calotte, but we must reject the nom masculin, norvégien which comes we know not whence, despite its consecration by usage. This is why for some years, at the request of our Danish colleagues, and to honour Rink, we have been using the term Indlandsis for an ice cover existing or having existed in polar regions. But we do not favour limiting its use to Greenland. Otherwise where do we go? It would be better to impose on international usage the Eskimo term Sermerssua which was given to the Indlandsis well before the Danes came to Greenland (sermerssua = “large glacier”).
And what about smørrebrød, køkkenmødding, kayak, anorak, etc… exclusively Danish?
11 February 1967
