130 | МУ. THALBITZER. 
$ 37. — In his classical grammar of the Greenland language : 
KLEINSCHMIDT designated the same contradistinction in the language 
by the appellations subjective and objective. We prefer here the 
names relative and absolutive, because they are not prejudicial as 
regards the origin or the psychological basis of this grammatical 
category or confine the phenomenon to any particular class of words. 
Within the verbs the relative suffixes are attached to two modes 
of the verb, and these modes only occur with relative forms in 
relative “action.” 
Every noun can be inflected in relative and in absolute action 
depending on the part it plays in the sentence. It should be noted 
that the term “sentence” has a somewhat different meaning in the 
Greenland tongue than the one we apply to it in our strongly ana- 
lytical languages. 
A. NOUNS. 
$ 38. Primary Suffixes. — 
|. Relative Inflection (-m or -p) 
1. Plural Inflection (-n or -{). (only НИ 
Classes or | | Classes or р x 
Se Singular Dual | Plural Br Absolutive Relative 
1.) -е <i, wk | =a, Wi 8 || =e) er, eg | -im, up, e 
2 | -an, ar, aq | -dy,dk| -dn, at 9 -d, п, I | -lep, te 
3 | -en, er, eq | -in, tk | -in, it 10 | -en, er, eq | -e:p, е* 
4 | » » y | — | -e’n 11 » )) » | -erim 
| 5 | » » » | — | -erin 12 » VED) | -(q) e 
6 | -ik (in) k= -е: 13. aim, ik (um, гр 
| 7 » » | — | wie 14 | -0:n, O-k | -v'm,0'p, 0: 
Examples. 
I. Plural and Dual Inflection. 
singular dual plural 
1. äsälé dsdlin dsdlin ‘receptacle on the kaiak deck (for the harpoon line)’ 
— WG. asdlog, plur. asåL' ut. 
2. nujan, nucsäk, nucsät ‘hair (on head)’ — WGr. nujaq plur. nutsäl. 
3. tålen, tåtik OUR ‘arm’? — WGr. tålég, täL'ik, tàL'it. 
imen, plur. imén ог imin ‘lake’ — WGr. iméq, er?pit. 
nåtén, plur. паЁе`п ‘bottom’ — WGr. ndteg, nargqit. 
5. nerter, plur. nerterin ‘goose’ — WGr. nerLeq, nerLerit. 
6. malik, plur. male: or måt:erin ‘wave’ — WGr. malik, таги. 
kamik, plur. kamé: or ka®m'®ät ‘boot — WGr. kamik, kamt it. 
7. iwik, plur. iwé'n ‘grass’ — WGr. twik, (Ей. 
II. Relative Inflection. 
8. dsdle, relative dsdli,;' ‘receptacle’ — WGr. 454104, relative dsdL’up. 
it’e, relative il‘im ‘house, hut’ — WGr. iL'0, iL'up. 
9. па, rel. udte ‘side-wall’ — WGr. opdt, ondlip. 
10. nåtén, rel. па’ ‘bottom’ — WGr. natéq, пагдир. 
