THE LANGUAGE 



very storehouse for the seeker after something 

 interesting. One thing that used to puzzle me was 

 the use of " Yes " and " No " in answer to questions. 

 If I said to a workman "Have you not finished 

 yet ? " and he answered " No," he would mean " On 

 the contrary, I have finished." "Yes" would imply 

 "Quite so, I have not) finished." This always 

 troubles new beginners, and I suppose that nobody 

 has escaped misunderstandings with the people over 

 the difference in usage. Another stumbling-block 

 was their misunderstanding of dependent sentences. 

 One day my wife said to the servant girl, 

 " Veronica, if you do not do your work better, you 

 will have to go home " and home went Veronica on 

 the instant, sobbing and wailing at what she thought 

 was her dismissal. It is very pleasant to know that 

 the language has been compressed in a grammar 

 book and dictionary, for some of the pioneers must 

 have had serious hours of thinking and planning to 

 put abstract ideas in a way that the people could 

 understand. 



When the missionaries came, there was no word 

 for "forgiveness" in the whole of the Eskimo 

 language ! They set about making one, and evolved 

 the splendid picture-word " Issumagijaujungnainer- 

 mik " based on the verb " issuma-vok " (he thinks). 



And so the picture of forgiveness to an Eskimo 

 mind is " not being able to think about it any more." 



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