Describing smell: A comparative analysis of active smell lexicon in Estonian and German

Abstract

This article reports on smell lexicon in two genetically unrelated languages, Estonian and German with the primary aim to compare cognitively salient and actively used smell terms and preferred lexical strategies. Two consecutive field experiments were carried out by interviewing 43 native speakers of both languages. The results are discussed against the background of anthropologically and cognitively oriented linguistics, where both languages can be told to share the typical features of WEIRD languages. The results of comparisons demonstrate that despite the genetic unrelatedness of Estonian and German, the active and cognitively salient smell vocabulary of the speakers of the two languages occurred as structured by the same principles of evaluative connotations and multisensoriality of odour lexicon.

Keywords

• olfaction
• field methods
• active vocabulary
• comparative analysis
• odour naming strategies
• cultural factors