The First Landing on Wrangel Island | Page 9

in
the Eskimo tongue, and these verbal divergencies may be owing to the
want of written records to give fixity to the language, since languages
resemble living organisms by being in a state of continual change. Be
that as it may, we know that this people has imported a number of
words from coming in contact with another language, just as the French
have incorporated into their speech "le steppeur," "l'outsider," "le high
life," "le steeple chase," "le jockey club," etc.--words that have no
correlatives in French--so the Eskimo has appropriated from the
whalers words which, as verbal expressions of his ideation, are
undoubtedly better than anything in his own tongue. One of these is "by

and by," which he uses with the same frequency that a Spaniard does
his favorite mañana por la mañano. In this instance the words express
the state of development and habits of thought--one the lazy
improvidence of the Eskimo, and the other the "to-morrow" of the
Spaniard, who has indulged that propensity so far that his nation has
become one of yesterday.
The change of the Eskimo language brought about by its coming in
contact with another forms an important element in its history, and has
been mentioned by the older writers, also by Gilder, who reports a
change in the language of the Iwillik Eskimo to have taken place since
the advent among them of the white men. Among other peculiarities of
their phraseology occurs the word "tanuk," signifying whiskey, and it is
said to have originated with an old Eskimo employed by Moore as a
guide and dog-driver when he wintered in Plover bay. Every day about
noon that personage was in the habit of taking his appetizer and usually
said to the Eskimo, "Come, Joe, let's take our tonic." Like most of his
countrymen, Joe was not slow to learn the meaning of the word, and to
this day the firm hold "tanuk" has on the language is only equalled by
the thirst for the fluid which the name implies. Among the Asiatic
Eskimo the word "um-muck" is common for "rum," while "em-mik"
means water. Even words brought by whalers from the South Sea
islands have obtained a footing, such as "kow-kow" for food, a word in
general use, and "pow" for "no," or "not any." They also call their
babies "pick-a-nee-nee," which to many persons will suggest the
Spanish word or the Southern negro idiom for "baby." The phrase
"pick-a-nee-nee kowkow" is the usual formula in begging food for their
children. An Eskimo, having sold us a reindeer, said it would be
"mazinkah kow-kow" (good eating), and one windy day we were
hauling the seine, and an Eskimo seeing its empty condition when
pulled on to the beach, said, "'Pow' fish; bimeby 'pow' wind, plenty
fish."
The fluency with which some of these fellows speak a mixture of
pigeon English and whaleman's jargon is quite astonishing, and
suggests the query whether their fluency results from the
aggressiveness of the English or is it an evidence of their aptitude? It

seems wonderful how a people we are accustomed to look upon as
ignorant, benighted and undeveloped, can learn to talk English with a
certain degree of fluency and intelligibility from the short intercourse
held once a year with a few passing ships. How many "hoodlums" in
San Francisco, for instance, learn anything of Norwegian or German
from frequenting the wharves? How many "wharf rats" or stevedores in
New York learn anything of these languages from similar intercourse?
Or, for that matter, we may ask, How many New York pilots have
acquired even the smallest modicum of French from boarding the
steamers of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique?
From a few examples it will be seen that the usage followed by the
Eskimo in its grammatical variations rests on the fixity of the radical
syllable and upon the agglomeration of the different particles intended
to modify the primitive sense of this root, that is to say upon the
principle of agglutinative languages. One or two instances may suffice
to show the agglutinate character of the language. Canoe is "o-me-uk;"
ship "o-me-uk-puk;" steamer "o-me-uk-puk-ignelik;" and this
composite mechanical structure reaches its climax in steam-launch,
which they call "o-me-uk-puk-ignelik-pick-a-nee-nee."
For snow and ice in their various forms there are also many words
which show further the polysynthetic structure of the language--a fact
contrary to that primitive condition of speech where there are no
inflections to indicate the relations of the words to each other. It will
not do to omit "O-kee-chuck" from this enumeration--a word signifying
trade, barter, or sale, and one most commonly heard among these
people. When they wish to say a thing is bad they use "A-shu-ruk," and
when disapproval is meant they say "pe-chuk." The latter word also
expresses general negation. For instance,