1002 



BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



tBULL. 40 



The importance of retrogressive uvularization in the evolution of 

 the Eskimo language is evident. Indeed, this phonetic process has 

 deeply impressed itself on the morphology of the eastern dialects, 

 the vocabulary as well as the grammar. The following sections, 

 treating of the general grammatical features of the language, contain 

 many examples of inflectional forms, that may be understood only 

 when we bear this fact in mind. 



Retrogressive uvularization is one of the most influential forces of 

 transformation, due to the change of the word-stress mentioned in § 3. 



CLASSES OF WORDS, BASE AND STEM (§§13-16) 



§ 13. General Remarks on the Structure of the Eskimo 



Language 



The structure of the Eskimo language is of a highly synthetic char- 

 acter, which apparently testifies to a typical tendency of the Eskimo 

 mind to concentrate and condense its notions into as few word-com- 

 plexes, or units of speech, as possible. Therefore a single Eskimo 

 word may represent a whole sentence as compared with our usual 

 mode of expression; e. g. — 



anerquwaatit he {a) begs (quwa) you (tit) to go out (aner) 

 aneiaarqerquwaatlt he begs you again (^^r) to go out early {iaar) 



As a rule, such an Eskimo word or word-sentence can be analyzed 

 and divided into an initial base-word {aner to go out), one or several 

 §13 



