ESKIMO 



By William Thalbitzer 



§ 1. INTRODUCTION 



The Eskimo language is spoken by hardly forty thousand individ- 

 uals, who live in small groups on the northernmost shores of America, 

 from Alaska to East Greenland. Their territory extends south of 

 Bering sea and includes the easternmost point of Asia. Since the 

 main groups have been separated for at least six hundred years/ more 

 likely for a thousand years or longer, it is but natural that their lan- 

 guage should have split up into a number of dialects. It becomes evi- 

 dent, from a comparison of these widespread dialects^ as recorded by 

 different authorities, that their differentiation has developed largely 

 through phonetic and sematological changes, and only to a slight 

 degree through intercourse with Indians. The dialectic differences 

 are important, although not so extensive as to obscure the identity of 

 the Eskimo languages of Alaska and of Greenland. We even tind 

 dialectic deviations from fiord to fiord. Nowadays an East Green- 

 lander does not understand a West Greenlander until both have 

 become accustomed to each other's speech; and the Greenlander has 

 to learn the peculiarities of the dialect of the Baffin-land Eskimo to 

 carry on conversation with him.^ The dialects of western Alaska 

 differ fundamentally from the Greenland dialects, about as much as 

 English and German or English and French differ from each other. 

 Owing to lack of material, it is at present difiicult to draw safe conclu- 

 sions concerning the historical relations of these dialects as regards 



I The ancestors of the present Central and South Greenlanders (the KalaaLLit tribe) appeared in 

 Greenland in the fourteentti century, but they must have separated more than a hundred years 

 before that time from tl^eir fellow-tribes on the opposite shores of Davis strait (G. Storm, Monumenta 

 historica Norvegise, 76, 205; Thalbitzer III, 111-112, and IV, 208). 



2H. Rink, in his "Eskimo Tribes" {Meddelelser om Qronland, XI, 1887-91), was the first to under- 

 take such a comparison; Thalbitzer, I, 181-269 (Phonetic differentiations in the Eskimo dialects). 



3 This was tested by a Greenlander who had an opportunity to meet with some Eskimos of Baffin 

 land. See Atuagaydliutit (the Greenlandic periodical). No. 1, pp. 2-3 (Godthaab, 1861). 



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