m 



system, owe their peciiliarily, as we have seen, to circumstances 

 which are absent in the case of the other (normal) vowels, 

 and which find merely an imperfect expression and place in 

 the system under the name "ultra back". 



§ 16. The form of the lips at the formation of the 

 vowels remains for brief consideration. The Greenlander's lips 

 are not apt to move out of their natural position of rest which, 

 wiien it is really typical, is half open, the thick under lip 

 hanging slightly down and being also perhaps somewhat pro- 

 truded forward. Still, of course, the lips do not remain passive 

 during the formation of the sounds. Aside from their activity 

 at the formation of the consonants, they have here, as in other 

 languages, to meet the demands of the vowels by supplementing 

 the up and down movement of the jaws with their own slight 

 and often unnoticeable bendings, roundings or tightenings. 



I shall give here in concise form the results of my observa- 

 tions and notes concerning lip positions at the formation of 

 vowels. They are in large part connected with experiments 

 which 1 made partly in Oommannaq and partly in Upernawik. 

 i and e seem to be pronounced as a rule with the lips 

 more open than in our languages. In distinct pronunciation 

 the upper lip is drawn slightly up, as in [oq4p"dq\^ [шгоге]^ 

 [qd^^S'i't]'^ [sule]^, likewise in the case of [e] in [qiteq'uX'orio], 

 [ner&re'rame] etc. — Especially in the case of S' -j- i or e, 

 I sometimes saw the lips drawn in this strange manner so that 

 they separated from each other and the corners of the mouth 

 drooped a little. If .the upper lip remains motionless, the under 

 lip is only lowered so much the more*). 



*) It is very significant in this connection tiiat tlic word wiiich means : 

 "speaks in the southern dialect" (where in certain words г and e are 

 substituted for о and it) is rehited to a word meaning "to show teeth" 

 (seil, a dog) (Kl. Diet. p. 72: ersangawoK — ersagpoK). 

 ' is lieht, not heav> ^ wind ' manv, several ■■ yet. 



