46 



more general relationships exist between the different tribes as 

 regards this question. 



The parts of speech, the organisation of the language 

 exhibited in its mode of construing and inflecting words l t 



As in all languages , the original component parts of the 

 words are roots. Out of these roots in the earliest ages of the 

 language were formed stems, each of which got its fixed signi- 

 fication. Leaving the development of the roots to professional 

 linguistic investigation, our considerations in the present volume 

 will be limited to THE STEMS as already existing and YIELDING 

 THE MATERIAL FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF WORDS. They are 

 divided into two classes: (I) INDEPENDENT OR PRIMITIVE, (2) DE- 

 PENDENT OR ADDED, the latter only to be applied in connection 

 with the former, producing COMPOUND STEMS OR DERIVATIVES. 

 In receiving the affixes the original word embodies notions 

 which more or less modify its signification. The repetition of 

 this process gives rise to SUBORDINATE STEMS OF VARIOUS 

 DEGREES, EACH OF THEM FORMING THE INDEPENDENT STEM TO 

 THE NEXT. 



The ADDED STEMS OR AFFIXES are distinguished from their 

 counterparts in wellknown European languages by their multi- 

 plicity and as to the majority of them, their moveableness or 

 capability of being appended wherever the meaning may admit 

 or require it, whereas on the other hand composing by adding 

 real words to others in unknown. Notwithstanding these ex- 

 traordinary means for the construction of derived words, whose 

 signification is given immediately by their constituent parts, the 

 dictionary must comprise and more closely explain the sense 

 of many derivatives, in the first place because not all affixes 



*) Hereafter if none of the other dialects is quoted, the Greenland grammar 

 always is meant, and generally the latter also applies to the Labrador 

 idiom. 



