Y. Decoy-Sounds. 



When the Greenlander is out fowling or seal-hunting, he 

 often has a practise of enticing the game over toward him by 

 imitating its natural sound (song, scream etc.) and thus calling 

 it, as it were. For instance, f have often heard and seen a 

 Greenlander calling from the strand to the young gulls out 

 over the sea, swinging the wing of a gull in one hand while 

 he holds his gun ready in the other. Each kind of bird is 

 decoyed with its special sounds. The singing and piping of 

 the small birds too, although they are not sought after as 

 game, are imitated in a definite manner, perhaps especially by 

 the children or for the children's sake. 



These natural sounds which have thus been adopted in 

 human speech from the language of animals furnish an 

 interesting contribution to phonetics. Of course like other 

 loan-words in the language, they undergo some change in 

 adapting themselves to the Greenlander's customary basis of 

 articulation : but the following specimens will show that in 

 many or in most cases he has trespassed beyond the normal 

 limits of this basis and has resorted to extravagant sounds in 

 order to approximate as near as possible to the sounds of the 

 birds and the seals. In comparison with us, the Eskimo is 

 undoubtedly an authority when it comes to an exact imitation 

 of the sounds made by the animals in his native-land. The 

 following little collection of decoy-sounds I wrote down exactly 

 as they were reproduced for me by Ka-wartaq a quick-witted 

 Eskimo and the best sealer at the settlement of Oommannätsiaq. 

 It was no easy task. I am sorry that my reproductions only can 



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