ESKIMO FOR “HOLE.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17345, 27 September 1924, Page 17

ESKIMO FOR “HOLE.”

LINGUISTIC PUZZLE. Air Donald Macmillan, who writes in ‘ The "World To-day ” on “ Some Humours of Arctic Exploration,” remarks that the Eskimo language is exceedingly difficult to learn owing «... the fact that it is polysynthetic and agglutinative. The key to the language is “ Knnok atinga?” or “ What is its name?” One may learn the Eskimo name for all material objects by the use of this phrase. “ i discovered one night that the rising heat from our oil stove hail melted a hole through the roof of our snow house. Pointing to the hole I inquired, ‘ Kanok atinga?’ On© of the girls promptly replied, ‘ Oop-sha-sul-nee-eye.’ I jotted it down immediately in my note book kept for that purpose, spelling it phonetically, followed by the word ‘ hole.’ A few days later I happened to tear the knee of my bear-skin trousers on the corner of an iron-strapped biscuit box. Embodying my newly learned word in the sentence 1 requested Too-cum-ah, one of the two girls, to get her needle and thread and sew up the hole. She burst out laughing, as did the other girl. Finally, but only after repeated inquiry as to the cause of their merriment, one ventured to reply ; “ You asked me to take my needle ! and thread and sew up the snow hole in the roof of your trousers!” “ ‘ AVhat do you call sucli a hole?’ “ ‘ Keed-la.’ “ What is a hole in the ground?’ “ ‘ Poo-too.’ “ ‘What is a hoi© in ice?’ “ ‘ That i.s another word.’ “ £ Now listen,’ I added, ‘I do not want any of these words. I want to know the simple word for “ hole.” ’ “ She thought for a moment and replied : ‘ There isn't any such thing. If it is a, bole, it is a hole in something or it wouldn’t be a hole.’ ”