Language and Folklore. 117 
for several years been under the distant influence of the West-Green- 
landers’ seminary at Godthaab. At the same moment the usual dif- 
fusion of the spiritual ‘and linguistic material has commenced, at 
first quite slowly and almost imperceptibly, but after 10 years 
already with evident results. So when I visited Ammassalik, and 
still more later on, a good deal of the original peculiarities of 
pronunciation and of speech-material had already begun to give 
way, and many new were in vogue. The language of the West coast 
is now entering together with the new ideas, introduced by the 
West-Greenland officials, curates, and teachers (catechists). 
S 7. — My folkloristic material, set down mostly from the mouths 
and ie tongues of the old people exactly as I heard it, shows the 
character of this dialect as it was, before the modern West Greenland 
influence had succeeded in making itself felt. I put down most of 
my material in phonetic rendering from the slow dictation of the 
natives; part of it I recorded on my phonograph, prose and poetry, 
with or without song. It is the literature of this people orally handed 
down from “days of yore” that is here published for the first time 
for the use of international science. 
In explanation of the texts and of my particular mode of spelling 
a brief representation of the grammar and phonetics of this dialect 
will be appropriate. 
The following abbreviations will be used (cf. the list of litterature at the end 
of the volume). 
Phon. Study — A phonetical Study of the Eskimo Language (1904). 
Eskimo Sketch == Eskimo, an Illustrative Sketch (1911). 
WGr. = West Greenland (NW Northwest SW Southwest). 
EGr. == East Greenland. Amm. — Ammassalik. 
PHONETICS 
The alphabet of the Ammassalik dialect. — 
Sr 
CO 
a 
Op и ER CUT о 
| OPIN RNS Ss Val Cg Coan LUE SUD 
Following are the signs for some modifications of the sounds: 
(ай ие шут (Фо (ou) Gr WR 
Ап exponent after а letter signifies either 
1) a weak glide toward the exponent’s sound, е. 5. at about = ad, or 
