CHAPTER II.
HYPERBOREAN LANGUAGES.
Distinction Between Eskimo and American—Eskimo Pronunciation and Declension—Dialects of the Koniagas and Aleuts—Language of the Thlinkeets—Hypothetical Affinities—The Tinneh Family and its Dialects—Eastern, Western, Central, and Southern Divisions—Chepewyan Declension—Oratorical Display in the Speech of the Kutchins—Dialects of the Atnahs and Ugalenzes Compared—Specimen of the Koltshane Tongue—Tacully Gutturals—Hoopah Vocabulary—Apache Dialects—Lipan Lord's Prayer—Navajo Words—Comparative Vocabulary of the Tinneh Family.
The national and tribal distinctions given in the first volume of this work will, for the most part, serve as divisions for languages and dialects; I shall not therefore repeat here the names and boundaries before mentioned, except so far as may be necessary in speaking of languages alone. As a rule those physical and social distinctions which indicate severalness among peoples, are followed, if indeed they are not governed by the severalness of dialects, that is, the diversities of language operate as powerfully as the aspects of nature or any other causes, in separating mankind into tribes and nations; hence it is that in the different divisions of humanity are found different dialects, and between dialects physical and geographical divisions.[II'-1]
LANGUAGES ON THE ARCTIC SEABOARD.
As I have said in another place the Eskimos are the anomalous race of the New World; and this is no less true in their language than in their physical characteristics. Obviously they are a polar people rather than an American or an Asiatic people.[II'-2] They cling to the seaboard; and while the distinction between them and the inland American is clearly drawn, as we descend the strait and sea of Bering, cross the Alaskan peninsula and follow the shores of the Pacific eastward and southward, gradually the Arctic dialect merges into that of the American proper. In our Hyperborean group, whose southern bound is the fifty-fifth parallel, the northern seaboard part is occupied wholly by Eskimos, the southern by a people called by some Eskimos and by others Koniagas, while further on the graduation is so complete and the transition from one to the other so imperceptible that it is often difficult to determine which are Indians and which Eskimos. In treating of their manners and customs, I separated the littoral Alaskans into two divisions, calling them Eskimos and Koniagas, but in their languages and dialects I shall speak of them as one. No philologist familiar with the whole territory has attempted to classify these Hyperborean tongues; different writers refer the languages of all to such particular parts as they happen to be familiar with. Thus the Russian priest Veniaminoff divides the Eskimo language into six dialects, all belonging to the Koniagas, on the Kadiak Islands and the adjacent territory. The fact is Veniaminoff dwelt in southern Alaska and in the Aleutian Isles, and knew nothing of the great inland nations to the north and west. To the people of Kadiak he gives two dialects, a northern and a southern, and carries the same language over to the main land adjacent.[II'-3] The Russian explorer Sagoskin, to the Chnagmute dialect of Veniaminoff, unites the Kwichpagmute and Kuskoquigmute under the collective name of Kangjulit, of which with the Kadiak he makes a comparative vocabulary establishing their identity.[II'-4] In like manner Baer classifies these northern languages, but confines himself almost exclusively to the coast above Kadiak Island.[II'-5]
Kotzebue says that a dialect of this same language is spoken by the natives of St Lawrence Island.[II'-6] Yet if we may believe Mr Seemann, all these dialects are essentially different. The Eskimo language, he writes, "is divided into many dialects, which often vary so much that those who speak one are unable to understand the others. The natives of Kotzebue Sound for instance have to use an interpreter in conversing with their countrymen in Norton Sound; towards Point Barrow another dialect prevails, which however is not sufficiently distinct to be unintelligible to the Kotzebue people."[II'-7]
EXAMPLES OF THE ESKIMO GRAMMAR.
According to Vater and Richardson the Eskimo language as spoken east of the Mackenzie River appears to have a softer sound, as for instance, for the western ending tch the eastern tribes mostly use s and sometimes h. The German sound ch, guttural, is frequently heard among the western people. Nouns have six cases, the changes of which are expressed by affixed syllables.
These are in the singular mut, mik, mit, me, and kut, and in the plural nut, nik, nit, ne, and gut. Ga, go, ne, ait, anga, ara, etc., affixed to the nominative, denote a possessive case. As:—kivgah, a servant; kivganga, my servant; kivgane, his servant; etc. Arsu and arsuit are diminutive endings and soak, sudset, and sudsek augmentatives. Adjectives are also declinable. Nouns can be transposed into verbs by affixing evok and ovok, and the adjective is altered in the same manner.