Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1898 — LANGUAGE OF ESQUIMAUX. [ARTICLE]

LANGUAGE OF ESQUIMAUX.

Spoken by Inhabitant* of More than 10,000 Miles of Coast Land, The Esquimau language, wnich is spoken at the extreme north of this hemisphere, is also found in the north of Asia. The people have been called orarians —that is, “dwellers on the shore.” They inhabit a narrow strip of country around the margin of Greenland and to the -west of Baffin’s bay, around all the great islands and down the coast shore of Hudson bay and about the bays and straits to the north; then to the west around Alaska, and still further along the arctic shores of the eastern continent. They thus extend along the winding island and mainland coast for more than 10,000 miles, inhabiting a narrow fringe of country by the sea aud obtaining their livelihood therefrom. More than 10,000 miles of coastline is occupied by a people who speak one language. But in Newfoundland there are tribes whieh speak another tongue mixed with the Esquimau, while on the southwest coast there are other tribes speaking mixed tongues; and the same is true of tribes inhabiting the northern coast of Asia. If we call all these tongues Esquimau, them the principafTStlgue is still homogeneous and a common medium for the communication of tribes occupying, as I have said, more than 10,000 miles of the most difficult coast known to mankind. While there is intercommunication, it is infrequent because of the difficulties and perils ot navigation. Thus, in all that stretch of country there is but one language.— Forum.