Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The origin of the Eskimo as traced by their language - Plan of the vocabulary
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
tables is less convenient. It will be seen that for this reason
the arrangement of the words is somewhat modified, and that
the author moreover has found it necessary to add the said «General
part» in order to complete the tables. The «Special part», as
we will call the tables, according to the plan of the
schedules is limited to certain classes of concrete ideas, and
therefore compared with that of a dictionary it must be deficient
even in several principal points. It is also for the translation
of words expressing more abstract ideas that the affixes and the
flexional endings chiefly are required. How this is effected
will also briefly be shown in the general part, but at the same
time the writer still must refer to the linguistic sections of the
first volume, viz Grammar, affixes and stemwords.
In looking over the vocabularies, above all it must be
remembered that of the difference which instantly is observed
between the dialects the far predominating majority is due to
the heterogenous orthography and the imperfections of
apprehending and rendering what originally was heard from the natives.
In the first Volume are mentioned the letters that have been
applied, and the confusion arising from the want of rules and
consistency in regard to them (p. 40—45). Secondly attention
has been called to the influence of the peculiar construction of
words and sentences, totally unknown to the foreign inquirers.
To these inconveniences must be added the occasional faults
in their questions, especially as the language by signs usually
was resorted to. The foreign investigator, in pointing first at
his own, then at his companions body, has asked about «beard»
and «head», but as answers received the words for respectively
«thy mouth» and «my hair»; mistakes of this kinds are frequently
recognised in the vocabularies. If this be the case in regard
to visible objects, the lack of tolerably sufficient information of
course is still more felt in trying to compile groups of the most
necessary designations of more abstract or spiritual ideas.
It follows of itself that in the present considerations we
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>