Evening star., 1955-03-09
Greenland Producing
A National Literature
Vast Vocabulary Features
Its Unique Language
By Thomos R. Henry

Greenland is producing a national
literature-modern novels. plays and
poems-in a unique language with an
almost infinite vocabulary.
The language is "Greenlander." abo-
riginal Eskimo reduced to a written
alphabet and with small mixture Of
European words and ideas. Earth's
northernmost inhabited land, with its
own small college in the storm-swept
village of Gothaab. the islands capital,
now represents a phenomenon of the
rapid emergence of primitive people
into place of high culture.
This is the conclusion of DR.. Svend
Frederiksen, native Greenlander who
now is reasearch associate of the Arctic
Institute of the Catholic University of
America. His countrymen, he says, are
truly Greenlanders, rather than Es-
kimoS in the traditional sense. But in
stead of borrowing a culture from Eu-
rope. as has been the case with most
primitive peoples. they have developed
strictly along their own lines with
Eskimo ideas predominant.
Many Word Combinations Possible.
All centers in the language" It
consists of 1871 stemwords. To these
may be added approximately 200 affixes.
Almost any number of these affixeS
can be added to any stem word in all
sorts of combinations to make a new
word.
"As a consequence" says DR.. Fred.
eriksen, theoretically, the Eskimo vo-
cabulary appears to be infinite. The
possibilities originating from one stem
word make the language capable of
fine distinctions and offer Eskimo
thought a scope to be envied by any
European. Eskimo is not quite COM
measurable with any other language.
No wonder all foreigners find it an ex-
ceedingly difficult language to pick up"
The difficulty was especially apparent
in the work of the early missionaries.
DR.. Frederiksen says. These, especially
the Egede family who are sometimes
called "the apostles of Greenland" at
tempted to translate the Bible into the
native language. But they thought as
Danes, not Eskimos. The Danish Ian
guage was quite incapable of expressing
complicated Biblical ideas in a way
comprehensive to the natives. The
European alphabet itself was not suit
able. Consequently the missionaries
did very poor job and their work falls
outside the scope of Gree,NandeE litera-
ture. 1t was not until the last century
that "Greenlander" itself began to
emerge as written language.
All Nouns and Verbs.
One of the pecularities of the Ian
guage. Dr. Frederiksen points out, is
that it is composed almost entirely of
nouns and verbs. BY means of the
system of prefixes whole sentence can
be expressed in verb alone. This also
was essentially the case in some Ameri-
can Indian languages-to which, how
ever, Eskimo is not related-but these
tongues never have been reduced to
literary languages. For this purpose
the Indian has adopted some one Of
the European languages.
1T is said" DR.. FrederikSen SAYS,
that scanty vocabulary is character
iStic of primitive languages and that
the more words language possesses
the higher its cultural level. If that
is true Greenland Eskimo must be a
civilized language of the highest
standards"
The Greenlanders remain a small
people-fewer than $4,000 in the coun-
try, and some of these still not entirely
assimilated. But they are turning out
poets and novelists of high order who
cannot be compared with those of any
other country. Some have received
university educations in Denmark, but
they always return to Greenland, their
own language, and their own ways
of thinking.
This is especially significant, DR..
Frederiksen says in the present genera
ton when the people are turning more
and more from the old hunting culture
and acquiring the skills of the outside
world.