lY. A Letter written bj a G-reenlander. 



iThe original is appended in antotype.) 



In the first line, I give the words of the letter in the writer's own 

 orthography, under that, ray phonetical transcription of the words, and 

 under that again my translation. Since the original is not altogether 

 easy to decipher, three processes of interpretation are necessary in 

 order to get at the translation: the interpretation of the letters of 

 the original, of the phonetical value of the letters*), and of the 

 Greenlandic words. It is but natural that it must occasionally remain 

 problematical if the writer's meaning is exactly reproduced in the 

 translation. 



Words of the original: asasara takusiniasaralu 



Phonetical transcription: as^äsar,a takusimasaraïo 



Translation: my dear and whom I formerly used to see 



ilesematuk alakatit teguvakka kiijangalu 



ilisimatd'q a?.'ak'atit ttfiuwaba quja'^7lalo 



man of science your letter I have received it and I thank (you) 



Nuvabar 3 alakatet tamasa basivaka imaka 



nuwampare piTiajuat ak'ok'atit tama'^sa pa'siwak'a tm'aqa 



the third of November ^) all that you wrote I understood it perhaps 



uvaga alakaka basisagenibatit 



и^'ащ aX'abak'a pa'sisari'in'erpatit 



what I here have written you will possibly not understand it 



*) I give a phonetical transcription of the words of the letter, as 1 used 

 to hear them pronounced anywhere in North Greenland and as the 

 letter-writer himself probably would have pronounced them. Yet I dare 

 not guarantee that he has no dialectal pecularities which have remained 

 unknown to me. 



