Page:A description of Greenland.djvu/213

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of Greenland.
165

which is the Cauſe, that many of their Words cannot be ſpelt according to their manner of pronouncing them. For the reſt, their Expreſſions are very natural and eaſy, and their Conſtructions ſo neat and regular, that one would hardly expect ſo much from a Nation ſo unpolite and illiterate. The Language is very rich of Words and Senſe, and of ſuch Energy, that one is often at a loſs and puzzled, to render it in Daniſh; but then again it wants Words to expreſs ſuch Things as are foreign, and not in Uſe among them. They have Monoſyllables and Polyſyllables, but moſt of the laſt. Their Words, as well Nouns as Verbs, are inflected at the End, by varying the Terminations, without the Help of the Articles or Particles, like the Greek and Latin. The Adjectives always follow their Subſtantives; but the Poſſeſſive Pronouns are joined to the Nouns, as the Hebrew Suffixa[1]: Nor have the Nouns alone their Suffixa, but the Verbs alſo. To ſatisfy the Reader's Curioſity, I have hereto joined a Liſt of ſome of the Words, and in a Sketch ſhew the Conſtruction and Inflections of this Language.

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  1. In its Inflections it agrees with the Hebrew.