1022 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 40 



ance with the Alaska possessive suffix of this meaning: rMk (in the 

 relative rJcenka). The dual system is disappearing in Greenland, but 

 it has been recorded by Paul Egede and S. Kleinschmidt, so that 

 all the original Greenland forms are known. I have only cited two- 

 fifths of the forms in the synopsis above presented; namel}^, such as 

 express duality of the object possessed. The other forms express 

 duality of the possessor: e. g'., 



POSSESSIVE DUAL ENDINGS 



In the absolutive first person the two dialects of Greenland and 

 Alaska apparently have interchanged their singular and plural forms, 

 puk meaning in Greenland our two selves' one, in Alaska those 

 BELONGING TO OUR TWO SELVES, and uvil' vicc vcrsa. The double 

 duals especially (of both object possessed and possessor) have been 

 contracted in Greenland, rj) being assimilated to^^?, 7't to tt, etc. The 

 Greenland kit., of their two selves' two, may be the remnant of 

 the Alaska rhmijtd)^ exactly as is the Greenland dual absolutive hih a 

 remnant of the Alaska rkiJr., whereas the last syllable, Za, of rkinha^ 

 seems to be a special suffix, perhaps formed in analogy to the nha of 

 the absolutive plural first person. It is astonishing to find that the 

 relative endings of the fourth person in the Alaska dialect are iden- 

 tical with those of the first person. The dual forms of that person are 

 probably lost in the Greenland dialect. 



The consistent use of the uvular as the general sign of the dual in 

 the Alaska possessive suffixes is worthy of notice, while in the other 

 forms, in the Alaska dialect as well as in the others, the palatal h per- 



§26 



