LANGUAGE.
It is quite probable that all, or nearly all, the tribes or settlements on the shores of the Arctic, both on the Asiatic and American sides, have a common language, though differing, as we found, in some words, and also in pronunciation. The language is that of the Esquimaux race.
Those with whom we lived, and other settlements or tribes on the Asiatic coast with whom we have had any acquaintance, from East Cape to the north as far as our wreck, have no written language. We could not learn from them that any one had ever attempted to instruct them, or reduce their language to some system, or that any teacher in religion had ever visited them. Without a written language, or books, or teachers, or oral instruction in some form, the certain results must invariably be, that from age to age, they will continue in the same condition of mental ignorance, moral blindness, and physical degradation.
It was the opinion of Mr. Abram Osborn, Jr., who became a proficient in the language of the natives, and could converse with them with ease and fluency, that it was simple, and he believed could be readily reduced to some systematic form. The method he resorted to, in order to acquire the language, was simply this: when he heard a native word, he would write it, according to its sound, upon a piece of copper, and place opposite to it its English definition. He made inquiries of the natives as to the meaning of their words, and what they called certain things. In this manner he became very familiar with all the terms and phrases which they used.
The following are a few specimens of native language. English words are placed in the first column, and the Esquimaux in the second.