247 



In these Greenlandic words , there is no uvularization 

 (vowel г), for the stem-forms have not given any occasion for 

 it; Petitot's p in the last syllable probably designates g here 

 (not as often otherwise, r). 



In the M. dialect, then, not only among the nominal q- 

 stems, but also among the non-uvular stems, we find 

 examples of unassimilated word-forms where 3 short syllables 

 (i. e. 3 syllables consisting of short sounds) correspond to 1 long 

 syllable -f 1 short syllable in the Avords of the Greenlandic 

 dialect. Another way of expressing it is that in a Greenlandic 

 word of this kind a long consonant has replaced the middle 

 syllable of the word in the M. dialect. In the above examples 

 (так'и), the Greenlandic /• corresponds to the he^ of the M. 

 dialect; that is the reason why the Greenlandic plural form 

 has a long I, although tbis sound in the singular form malik 

 is short. 



I think that this case may be employed to explain most 

 of the other Greenlandic plural forms of words that contain a 

 short voiced consonant in the singular and a long unvoiced 

 consonant in the plural. The chief peculiarity of this plural 

 formation, as it is now found in Greenlandic, seems to consist 

 in the shifting of stress that takes place: in the singular 

 malisk, but in the plural m'aÅ''u. I shall later come to con- 

 sider this peculiarity more closely. Here 1 shall merely try to 

 explain the quantitative change which at the same time 

 affects the next last consonant in the word. If my hypothesis 

 about the matter is correct, then the lengthening of this con- 

 sonant is due to the peculiar manner in which the plural of 



original shape of every Greenlandic word of this formation. Only with 

 some modification does the analogy of ш -qa <. atqa apply to ■merqut 

 (a needle), for in the Alaska language the latter has a form whose stem 

 is min- (not mit-): SEAL min^kun, needle: minnukftuq4öa , I want to 

 sew. — In not a few cases, an uvularized stem is found in both the 

 eastern and the western dialects 



