256 



have been more or less thoroughly investigated (the dialects of 

 Greenland, Labrador, the mouth of the Mackenzie River and 

 South West Alaska) furnish sufficient material for us to be 

 able to make a temporary sketch of the differences between 

 them. Fn the last two sections, I have especially tried to get 

 at the bottom of some of the phonetical peculiarities of the 

 dialects in these four places. I may add that the impressions 

 that 1 have got from the lists of words and the many scattered 

 words given by travelers in their accounts about the interjacent 

 districts have only served to support the results that I have 

 come to through the chief works about the Eskimo language. 



From the nature of the dialectal differences it is in many 

 cases possible to draw conclusions with regard to the history 

 of the language. — In the following I shall try to combine 

 these conclusions with the few historical facts that are known 

 about the Eskimo. Among the facts I include the theory so 

 plausibly set forth by H. Rink, namely that the Eskimo have 

 developed their special form of civilization in common as a 

 coast-population at some point on the arctic coast, and that 

 from this point — whose exact situation is uncertain — they 

 have followed the coasts in slow migrations until they have 

 become distributed as at present*). 



When Greenlandic in a great number of words has s 

 where the American dialects have J, it is reasonable (even if 

 not necessary) from a general pnonetical point of view to 

 assume that j is the primary, s the secondary sound. That this 

 is the case in the Eskimo languages is confirmed by the fact 

 that the transitions that take place between other open conso- 

 nants within this family of languages always seem to have 

 been in the direction from voiced to unvoiced sounds. Within 

 the Greenlandic language itself, the aspirated fricatives are 

 secondary in relation to the voiced fricatives ; for they often 



H. Rink- Om Eskimoernes Herkomst. Aarbøger for Nordisk Old- 

 kyndighed og Historie, 2. Series, Vol. V, Copenhagen 1890. 



