155 



{kutät- Ilt-forms, cf. § 30) like [unikY, [гупгЩ- with the usual 

 forms which have q instead of k: \uneq, o-neq]. Likewise we 

 find in normal West Greenlandic neriwdq'^ < *neriwo -\- q {d <С o), 

 иегегет- * < *nerireT- (e < г). The vowels which have thus 

 been uvularized may be further influenced by a following 7i, n, 

 and also perhaps to a less degree by the other point con- 

 sonants. Thereby [a] becomes [à], [e] > [ë], [о] > [о]. Since 

 a vowel followed by rn, rm, vri, rri, always is nasalized, this 

 circumstance also gives it a peculiar shade*). 



§ 26. Sound-groups. Two different consonants 

 may not occur next to each other in the Greenlandic Eskimo 

 language. A consonant must always be succeeded by a vowel 

 before the next consonant comes. The only exceptions are: 

 ts and r -\- consonant. 



This characteristic reveals itself in a striking manner in 

 the foreign, mostly Danish, loan-words adopted in the language, 

 where all consonant-groups are split by the insertion of vowels, 

 whose nature is determined so as to harmonize with» the other 

 vowels in the word : 



Danish skrå -= Greenlandic [s^ukuV'd-q] 



» spænde = » [s/p'erweg] 



» silke = » \si'like\ 



>) præst = » [palase] 



» tröje = » [t^ü'juk] 



English pork = » Ipuluke] 



There are a few exceptions, as for instance \pru^e-fe\, a 

 prophet, but they seem to be difliciill for the Greenlanders to 



*) "All nasalized vowels have a deeper iiaUiial pitch tiian the conespondiiii; 

 mouth-vowels, so that for instance a nasalized (i has a darker more 

 o-like shade." 0. Bremer: Deutsche Phonetik, p. Kil. 



' the armpit ^ a hnrn ' he is eatint; ^ has finished eatiiii;. 



