41 



few, apparently quite superfluous foreign characters by their 

 ordinary counterparts, and of restricting the application of ac- 

 cents and hyphens, which in some works are found obviously 

 too abundant while in others they are almost wanting. 



The Greenland language likes full and plain vowels, pre- 

 ferring syllables composed of one vowel and one consonant. 

 Two consonants are not allowed to be combined, unless suscep- 

 tible of perfect coalescence. A Greenlander is unable to in- 

 sert half vowels, as in the words: bridge, blow, cloud, he will 

 say: berridge, billow, calloud. 



The following list represents the letters adopted by Klein- 

 schmidt for the modern orthography and their pronunciation: 



a like a in father , sometimes, especially before k and t 

 like a in at. 



e like e in represent; strictly spoken it is only an t, 

 when this should be placed before a guttural sound or at the 

 end of a word. 



/ like f in if , or merely as a sharpened v, turning into 

 a v after a consonant. 



g like g in good. 



i like i in it, or ee in three*. 



j like y in yard. 



k, (q), called /ea, like a very guttural k, something between 

 g, rk and rkr. As it is the only new character that has been 

 found necessary for the alphabet, I have preferred to adopt a 

 g, also proposed by others for this sound. 



k, called ke, like c in can or ck in lack. 



I like 1 in holy>. 



dl like tl in softly, is merely an I sharpened after a 

 consonant. 



m like in in me. 



n like n ni no. 



ng a nasal n. 



o like o in other , is the same to u as e is to i. 



