236 



dialects. I take the given form for the word "hand" in this 

 dialect to be a reproduction of tiie sounds [adziraq], the NAl. 

 form to be [atriqa'c] or rather [(itjri^a-i]. A comparison of the 

 Alaska forms for the word ••eye" gives a basis *itj)'-, while 

 beside this there must have been a shorter basis '?>/- or 'it- 

 for those western forms where there is no uvular at present. 

 In the Mackenzie form with [J], and in the present eastern 

 forms, every trace of the uvular has been lost. 



In this connection it is interesting to turn back to the 

 above mentioned little series of examples: Gr. uç'uk, L. ugjuk^ 

 NAl. ûg'ni, etc. ip. 2331. If the uvular in the words for eye and 

 hand was at one time present in East Eskimo, why should it 

 not also have been present at about the same time in the words 

 of this series? Frobisher does not mention any of these words, 

 but the forms which they had at that time may perhaps be 

 reconstructed after the analogy of the two words that he has 

 written down. His mode of spelling these words, to be sure, 

 does not exactly agree with modern principles for phonetical 

 spelling. If I had been along on Frobisher's expedition, I 

 should perhaps rather have spelled the word that he records 

 in the form arered, in this way ""erjret or erjit^ and the word 

 that he records as argoteyt , as *[uv^otft\ *|. In the same 

 dialect, then, the words under consideration have probably had 

 the forms ^[wpi ir^u ktir^u], or perhaps with [rj] at a later 

 stage. This consonant-group has then found itself in a very 

 forced and unnatural position between two high vowels ; the 

 vowel-change has not taken place, or if it has taken place, it 

 has only been temporary; the consonants have changed instead 

 and have passed into [qj] in Labrador, into unvoiced [ç] in 

 Greenland. Cf. also Gr. i.re < irse, L. rje (or ij'e) < 'igje 

 < *irje. 



') Present Baffin-dialect: ai/oq, plur. a[/ai)t ihand and a</i'ij}jit your hand's, 

 cf. F. Boas in der Kskimo Dialect des Cumberland-Sundes Mlttheii. 

 Anthrop. Gesellsch. Wien, vol XXIV, 1894). 



