XV 



order to get expressions for new ideas. Even if the translations 

 are correct, yet they do not represent Eskimo ways of thinking 

 in Eskimo style of expression. I can rather recommend those 

 articles about life in Greenland which have been contributed 

 by natives, generally school-teachers, to the national magazine 

 At'uayagdliiiUt (cf. Introduction p. 65). The system of ortho- 

 graphy in this magazine is the same as the one used in the 

 Greenlandic-Danish dictionary (published 1871). 



The author of this dictionary and originator of the present 

 orthography was the missionary S. Klein sch midt. The advan- 

 tage of his orthographical system consisted principally in the 

 introduction of accents to indicate not only the word-stress 

 but also in part the quantity of the sounds, moreover in the 

 distinction drawn between к and ic (my q). And furthermore, 

 in the case of many words Kleinschmidt has given a more 

 precise form than that found in earlier authors. It is, how- 

 ever, necessary to have heard the language in order to under- 

 stand his representation of it, which does not convey a direct 

 impression of its phonetical character. Of course there is no 

 doubt that Kleinschmidt knew the Greenlandic language as well 

 as his mother tongue. Of that his grammar and his dictionary 

 bear sufficient evidence, it would be ungrateful of me not to 

 emphasize the great debt which 1 owe to his thorough treat- 

 ment of the South-Greenlandic language as long as 50 years 

 ago. 1 am convinced that the two above-mentioned works of 

 his will in just as high a degree as the founder Poul Ege de 's 

 works continue in the future to retain their value as linguistic 

 monuments, that is as sources of lexical and grammatical know- 

 ledge about this language as it was at the time of each respective 

 author. There will still be enough left to do for modern or 

 future philologists, who will find othçr problems to solve and 

 will require other means of solving them than those which were 

 at Kleinschmidt's disposal. 



