74 



purpose both in connection with consonants and vowels. Tlie 

 nasaUzing activity is not only constant in the formation of 

 certain sounds (n m // 5), but is apt to spread to adjacent 

 sounds, m becomes r«; am even becomes âf /? ; likewise rm 

 and r^i become rm and r;/ , with constant nasalizing of the 

 preceding vowel. In the case of many individuals, this tendency 

 to nasalize is due to a mild degree of snuffling. 



I found that this physiological peculiarity was very common 

 everywhere. In certain districts, it is undoubtedly of linguistic 

 importance because it causes nasalizing of sounds which in 

 other districts are not nasalized, for instance, of r in the 

 O-nraifaq and Upernaivik districts, of g everywhere in Nortli- 

 Greenland, occasionally of ^, which thereby passes into и, and 

 of w, which thereby passes into m (e.g. iwnaZ> imna^. 



There is one word which is produced without any other 

 articulation than voice-position — nasal resonance. Whereas 

 ''yes" elsewhere is expressed by я-р, in the Uper>uiwik dialect 

 this word is often replaced by a simple nasal sound [j^-J or [m-], 

 uttered with falling intonation, a word of the utmost phonetic 

 simplicity*). 



Within the limits of the constant sounds of the Greenlandic 

 sound-system, it is remarkable to observe that, whereas long 

 unvoiced and short voiced consonants often occur with mouth- 

 resonance, there are no long voiced consonants with mouth- 

 resonance. In other words, only those voiced consonants which 

 occur with nasal resonance [ni и tf vj] may be long. Therefore 



*) I may yet add tliat the udid for "no" — va /a — is often accompanied 

 b> a grimace, a wrinkling of the nose, which either has no signilicatimi 

 or merely intensities the negation, for it does not necessarily indicate 

 any displeasure. Very often too the word is accompanied by shaking 

 of the head. Likewise the already mentioned interjection [Vr] and 

 another interjection [a''], both of them expressions of disgust, are 

 uttered with open, slightly vibrating lips, and are accompanied by shaking 

 of the head and wrinkling of the nose. 



^ he over vonder. 



