Although, considering the wide-stretched coasts along which 

 it is spoken, the Eskimo language presents a striking uniformity 

 in its construction, that is to say, in the making of words into 

 sentences by the help of affixes, there is nevertheless a con- 

 siderable difference between the dialects spoken in different 

 places, and these differences reveal themselves, partly in varied 

 phonetic forms, such, for instance, as Candidat Thalbitzer 

 has pointed out in his «Phonetical Differentiations in the Eskimo 

 Dialects» ^) and partly in the various widely deviating appellations 

 of animals, things, actions, etc.; which last would seem to argue 

 an influence from non-Eskimo languages spoken by races with 

 whom the Eskimos had at one time or other been in close 

 contact, — one may even confidently assume that many Eskimo 

 tribes have mingled peaceably with neighbouring tribes of non- 

 Eskimo origin, thus in Asia with the Chukchees, in America 

 with the Indians, and in Greenland with the old Icelandic 

 settlers, who dwelt in the so-called Österbygd, which was 

 practically the present Julianehaab District. It is this com- 

 mingling with different foreign elements that has produced the 

 various types of the Eskimo race, and at the same time a 

 considerable proportion of the differences now existing between 

 the languages of the various groups. Still, as far as this 

 question is concerned, one must not forget that the different 

 conditions of life and livelihood prevalent in the different groups 

 now and in the past have had no small share in the develop- 



M Meddelelser om Grönland, Vol .31. 



