In its purity it employs suffixes only for
the definition and meaning, though complex sentences are often formed
of a single word--that is, it is a polysynthetic in character. No
philologist familiar with the whole territory has ever made a
comparison of the dialects of the polar tribes, probably because no
philologist is familiar with all the dialects spoken there. Everything
therefore that would tend to throw any light upon the subject or to
place before the scholar material by which to prosecute such
philological studies must be regarded as of importance.
The long residence of the Danes in Greenland and their intermarrying
with the native Esquimaux, has led to a more thorough acquaintance with
the language of the aborigines of that continent, than any other
portion of the polar regions. In fact, as long ago as 1804 a complete
dictionary of the Greenland tongue was published by Otho Fabricius, the
translation being in the Danish language. With the exception of a few
fragmentary vocabularies, this is the only work upon which the
traveller or the student of the languages of the Polar regions can
depend.
Mr. Ivan Petroff, the Alaskan traveller, has taken some pains to
compile a vocabulary of the various dialects of the Pacific races with
whom he has sojourned, which, when published, will form another link in
the chain by which the scholar may trace the spread of the Asiatic
tribes along the northern seaboard of America.
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