85 



fricative. The same peculiarity repeats itself in my memoranda 

 of tales and songs from all the places which I visited. But 

 still there remains the curious fact that I almost everywhere 

 observed single exceptions to the rule — setting aside the 

 "katekef's and the half-Danish population — even among the 

 "real" Greenlanders. 



Of the key-words on the g-list, X and XX pronounced the 

 word tgai \t'%a'i] with /-2* = a back tongue fricative, XI, the 

 words pigigiya and kiagugpoq [pipp^a] [kiapqroq\ with -^2 or 

 at all events a very loose stop, whereas the same individuals 

 in all the other words used exclusively ^. And they were even 

 apt to nasalize the fricative q. But these very few exceptions 

 are the only ones I know of. Otherwise the sound 7/ was used 

 everywhere instead of q in the key-words on my phonetic lists. 



From the rest of my notes, however, I can mention still 

 more examples of words with g, fewest from the northern 

 districts, but more from Disko Bay, where q, at all events 

 nasalized, may be said to be right common, and is in some 

 words used interchangeably with 7[. Farther south (Egedesminde 

 District), 71 again seemed to predominate. In some cases 1 found 

 it impossible to decide whether I had heard a [?[] or a [g] 

 (nasalized), for instance in 



[qumi/.'oqo] or [qumik'orio]^ [Щгта-\ or [tiTfuwcr] etc. 



But all these sporadic cases of g are of little significance 

 as against the wide-spread and prevailing use of // in the 

 same words and by the same individuals. Therefore I think 

 I come nearest the truth when I say that the sound [//J, the 

 nasalized stopped consonant, is throughout the whole of North 

 (Ireenland well on the way to supplant [cfj, the corresponding 

 fricative, and indeed in most places already has done so. This 

 sound-change is probably connected with the usual propensity 

 for snuffling. Only the native "kateket's and those Greenlanders 

 who imitate their language made an eiïort to pronounce the 

 words "correctly" with q. 



