I received from Captain Holm after his arrival from East Green- 

 land, a copy of Kleinschmidt's Greenlandic dictionary ^), inter- 

 leaved with white leaves, on which the catechist (native missionary) 

 Johannes Hansen had at his request made notes in Greenlandic on 

 the words for which the Easterners use more or less diflFering terms. 



Alltogether about 500 words were annotated; a great part ot 

 the notes, however, merely regarded minor differences, particularly 

 the pronunciation of certain letters, or contained repetitions of the 

 same root in different combinations. With regard to some of the 

 most divergent terms, it was added that the corresponding West 

 Greenland expression was also known, though not in general use 

 on the East coast. As the information of this latter kind was not 

 so complete as might have been desired, Captain Holm on his re- 

 turn home enlisted the services of his interpreter Johan Petersen 

 in going through the whole dictionary again , and supplementing it 

 in the said regard from memory. This was naturally no easy task, 

 and accordingly signs of interrogation had to be placed at many 

 words. But at all events the whole work in its present form must 

 be regarded as one of the best contributions to a knowledge of the 

 Eskimo language. 



As we have said, the object of the annotations is to show how 

 the same idea is designated in the two dialects (East and West 

 Greenlandic). When y\e compare the differences which occur in 

 this regard with what we find in the glossaries we possess from 

 other, even the most remote Eskimo countries, even a hasty survey 

 ;gives us repeatedly occasion for astonishment. It can reasonably 

 be maintained that none of the other Eskimo dialects exhibit such 

 marked divergences from our Greenlandic dictionary in expression 

 for some of the commonest and most important ideas, as the East 

 Greenland dialect does. 



\i S. Kleinschmidt, Den grønlandske Ordbog. Kjøbenhavn 1871. 



