998 BUEEAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOOY [bull. 40 



§ 12. Retrogressive Uvularization 



Retrogressive uvularization is the name of a phonetic tendency 

 toward uvular anticipation/ which nia}^ have begun in the earliest 

 historj^ of the language, since it can be traced in all dialects. Its 

 transforming activity has asserted itself at different stages in the 

 development of the language, and has penetrated the eastern dialects 

 in a far higher degree than those of the west. It shows itself in the 

 present state of the Eskimo language, in that many words in the 

 Greenland and Labrador dialects have «r, er^ or (uvularized vowels), 

 when the western and partly also the central dialects have retained 

 the original sounds, «, /, u. In the majority of cases this change may 

 probably be traced back to a shift of the word-stress whereby the 

 vowel of the S3'llable that lost its stress has in the course of time dis- 

 appeared. By this contraction of the word, two consonants have 

 come into contact, and either have been assimilated or have shifted 

 places (cf. Alaska nimra^ and Greenland nerma his [its] binding, both 

 formed from nimeq + suffix a^ his, its). The Alaska form suggests 

 that the r of nerma may be explained as the final uvular of nimeq, 

 shifted to r; and this supposition is strongly supported by the fact 

 that the Mackenzie-river dialect (cf . the vocabulary of Petitot), and 

 the dialects west of Hudson bay, contain some transitional forms 

 stressed in the original manner; e. g., atepelt [a'tereet]^ the plural of 

 (/ten [a'teq] name, regularly formed, likewise atepa my name (in 

 Alaska atqa, in Greenland arqa). A metathesis of the consonants has 

 taken place in the Greenland tnarmk two, which may be compared 

 with- Alaska malruk and Mackenzie-river tiialaroh. On account of the 

 assimilation or metathesis of the consonants, the uvular consonant 

 which belonged originally to the suffix or final part of the word has 

 been displaced, and is now found in the middle of the word in the forms 

 east of Hudson bay . In most of the eastern dialects the preceding vowel 

 has thus been uvularized: nirma has become nerma, qitqa its middle 

 (Mackenzie river) has become qerqa (through *qiqqa). Intermediate 

 forms are found in the Baffin-land dialect {iq, ir\ uq, ur\ etc.); but 

 in some instances the assimilation of the consonants {tl) has been car- 

 ried further, in the dialects of Labrador and Baffin land (Smith sound), 

 than in West Greenland. 



I The uvular position of the palate, which originally belonged to the end of the word, is anticipated 

 in the base of the word (Thalbitzer I, 241-242) . 

 2Ray nimxa the lashing of the harpoon-shaft. 



§12 



