152 W. THALBITZER. 
F. EASTGREENLAND’S DIALECTS 
S 75. — Three dialects were spoken on the southern part of Green- 
land’s east-coast, according to the information of old Kuannia. This 
agrees with previous testimony regarding the language’, but these 
dialects of which the two most southerly are only known very slightly 
and are no more traceable now after the emigration of the southern 
easterners, have naturally been closely connected. Kuannia had retained 
fresh in his memory the impression of a difference in the musical 
accent and in certain designations. He gave me the boundaries thus, 
starting from the south at Cape Farewell or the island Aleek, 
the once famous most southerly trading place (Graah’s Aluk), and 
going north. 
SOU 66500006 60° to 62° n. lat. Aleek-Anoriteeq 
Halfway coast 62° » 64°» » Ikermeen-Umeewik 
Centrale 64° » 68° » » Pikeeteq—Ammattalik—Kialeeq (Kialineq) 
АО 000000: 70° » 80°» » (extinct and unknown tribe) 
Kuannia from Ittoluartiwin on the “halfway coast” had his own 
naive theory as to the origin of the dialects. The true Greenland 
tongue was only heard at one place in the world, at his home-stead, 
near Umeewik. “Varying dialects spring up when people in far off 
places give a wrong turn to the tongue in their mouths and twist the 
lips too much, outward or to the side, whereby the words run out in 
distorted forms and in opposite directions, some along the right arm 
and some along the left; then they split in the distance and become 
almost unintelligible.” Therefore, when Kuannia imitated the dialect 
from Keersagalik he made some frightful faces. 
Another old man Kunnapy, born in the north, declared that when 
as a young man, he visited the Timmiarmeen people in the “halfway” 
district he did not understand their speech to begin with (e. g. certain 
words were unintelligible to him), but he learned the language in the 
course of the winter while he lived there. 
$ 76. — Even within the two large fiords that I investigated in 
1905—06 a slight difference of dialect was noticeable. The Sermilik 
people had certain words and habits of pronunciation that the more 
northerly and easterly family groups from Ammassalik did not use, e. g. 
1 Cf. First Part pp. 331—332, 336 (D. Cranz speaks of the “singing accent” of 
the easterners). 
