982 BXJKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



The dynamic accent in a great many words is uncertain or only 

 slightly differentiated. Examples are: 



jMnia his daughter 



nulia his wife 



aivoya toward the north 



unniwimat as it became night 



ornippaa he comes to him 



There is always a marked stress on the vowel before a long (gemi- 

 nated) consonant, or on a long vowel. Accordingly, all the syllables 

 of the words just mentioned — unnummat^ ornippaa — are stressed. 

 Besides, the final syllable has a tendency to attract the stress to itself: 

 ti'keq^ pami'oq, seqi'neq^ ly'uf'taq^ a'niya"me. Words of irregular 

 form prove, if distinctly pronounced, to be very irregularly stressed; 

 or the stress undulates through the syllables in varying degrees of 

 strength, according to the psychic importance of each syllable or 

 according to the traditional rhythmical formation of the language. 

 But even the longest Eskimo word, in the flow of conversation, is 

 kept together as a whole, or stamped as a unit, by means of a true 

 word-stress concentrated on a single S3'llable, which in most instances 

 will be found to be near the end of the word. In most words consist- 

 ing of more than three syllables we may distinguish at least three, or 

 even four, degrees of stress (1, weak; 2-3, middle; 4, strong); e. g., 



3 2 11413 3 12 14 3 2 2 31114 134 11 124 



Kaasasorujoyuaq ciLLineq ajormat tiyumissm'oluarLoyo attamMt iyitar- 



3 13112 4 3 114 233 3 11 4 3 32 11 



paaH ilaai oqassapput ujaraayyittoq aLLimnaarpoq ihhut ayi- 



413 11312 114 2 



sorsuit jpiniartunik ulikaartut. 

 According to their stress, we may distinguish between two kinds of 

 primary words or word-stems, — oxytone, having strong stress on the 

 last syllable; and paroxytone, having stress on the penultima. 



Oxytone: 



tu'peq tent ti'Tieq forefinger 



a'teq name a'p^d snow 



a'yut man, male a'naa her elder brother 



ii'p'ik smell Tie'qe meat 



sa'ioik knife 



Paroxytone: 



'oTssoq blubber 'tippik piece of the framework of 



'Illo house a kayak 



'erneq son 'saJcko implement for hunting 



§3 



