Samuel Petrus Kleinschmidt (1814–1886) was a second-generation Moravian missionary. His mother—the senior Kleinschmidt’s second wife—was Danish; Samuel grew up in Greenland and learned the language as a child. Eventually he and the Moravian order parted ways. But he soon found someone on the Danish side to work for instead, and was able to spend most of his life in Greenland.
Kleinschmidt’s Grammatik was not the first book about the language of Greenland. But it was definitely the most important.
The sections of the book are not very large. I broke them into five separate files because there are clear stylistic breaks, especially between the three Haupttheile.
Vorrede und Inhalt (p. iii–x)
Formen und Aussprache (p. 1–64, §. 1–67)
Satzlehre (p. 65–106, §. 68–103)
Zusammensetzung und Anhang (p. 107–182, §. 104–140 u. Anhang)
Tabelle der Beugungsanhänge (p. 19-20)
Tabelle als PDF (172k)
These are some terms Kleinschmidt used consistently. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list.
| Kleinschmidt: | other texts may also use: |
|---|---|
| Subjectiv | Genitive, Ergative |
| Objectiv | Nominative, Absolutive |
| Modalis | Accusative |
| Terminalis | Dative |
| -tut | Similis, Aequalis |
| Subject | agent of verb |
| Object | patient of transitive verb |
| Project | grammatical subject |
| transitiv | specific (verb) |
| halbtransitiv | intransitive or nonspecific verb (with patient in Accusative) |
| suffix | possessive ending and object/patient of transitive verb |
| e-suffix | reflexive; third person (of secondary verbs) |
| a-suffix | fourth person (of secondary verbs) |
| Infinitiv | Participle, Conjunctive |
| Conjunctiv | Causative, Becausative, Subjunctive |
| Subjunctiv | Conditional |
| Optativ | Imperative |
Kleinschmidt used ĸ (kra) for the sound now written as q. He assumes that the reader is already familiar with this letter. Long vowels are shown as â or ã, î or ĩ etc.; see §. 2–3 of the Einleitung. The letter sequence -ij- does not occur.
Most aspects of vowel notation are not phonemic; except for the i:e and u:o variation, they are no longer used. Each of the following is a single sound:
| rng | nasal ĸ (q), described but not used |
| ṙ | uvular r |
| ss | pronounced like German sch |
| dl | l after a consonant |
Some of Kleinschmidt’s more important notes, including “ein- für allemal” notations:
Earlier orthographies: p. 4, §. 4
Classes of nouns and affixes: §. 28ff.
Verkürzungen in Satzlehre: §. 70, n.
n. = verneinung (-ngit-)
1. = »bevorstehende handlung« (-sa-, -u-)
2. = »vollendete handlung« (-sima-)
Andere Verkürzungen:
stw. = Stammwort
f. = frage(wort)
Form of affixes (Anhängewörter): page 111, §. 109
affix = stem unchanged
-affix = stem loses final consonant
:affix = stem loses final vowel and consonant
(g)affix = »wie bindecharacter«
(t)affix = »wie participwurzel«
r-affix, g-affix, ng-affix = affix with variable preceding letter
Einige Wörter, die besonders häufig in Beispiele vorkommen (deutsche übersetzungen immer Kleinschmidts):
pik sache, besitz, eigenthum.
isuma meinung, belieben.
oĸauseĸ wort.
inuk mensch.
angut mann (männliches); mit suff.: vater.
arnaĸ weib(-liches); mit suff.: mutter.
erneĸ sohn.
agssaĸ finger; mehrh.: die hand.
nâlagaĸ herr; eig.: dem gehorcht wird (pass. part.).
kivfaĸ diener.
nano bär.
âtâĸ seehund.
ĸingmeĸ hund.
igdlo haus.
savik messer.
ĸajaĸ ein mannsboot.
umiaĸ ein boot, bes. ein grönl. weiberboot
nuna land; m. suff.: heimath.
ĸaĸaĸ berg.
ujarak stein.
aussaĸ sommer.
ukioĸ winter.
pivâ er erhält es.
pivoĸ er thut.
autdlarpoĸ er geht fort, reist ab.
ornigpâ er geht od. kommt zu ihm.
tikípâ er kommt (bis) dahin, erreicht es.
tikípoĸ er ist angekommen.
unigpoĸ er bleibt da.
iluarâ er billigt es, ihn.
torĸorpâ er verbirgt es, hebt es auf.
naluvâ er weiss ihn od. es nicht; n.
sinigpoĸ er schläft.
nerivâ er isst (od. frisst) ihn.
takuvâ er sieht es.
issigâ er sieht auf das.
tusarpâ er hört es, oder ihn, oder von ihm.
tusarpoĸ er hört.
oĸarpoĸ er sagt.
oĸautigâ er besagt ihn, spricht von ihm.
toĸupâ er tödtet ihn.
toĸuvoĸ er stirbt.
tunivâ er begabt ihn, giebt ihm.
tiguvâ er nimmt es.
angivoĸ es ist gross.
mikivoĸ es ist klein.
This ebook is based on two sets of scans at The Internet Archive, supplemented by a photograph of the foldout Tabelle of inflectional endings. The original book was meticulously typeset and proofread, so any apparent errors are most likely an artifact of the ebook preparation process. Typographical errors are listed at the end of each segment; the more important errors are also shown with mouse-hover popups.
The original Ae, Oe, Ue have been changed to Ä, Ö, Ü for ease of reading. All other spelling, punctuation and capitalization are as in the original. In particular, the variation between “hier(her)” and “hie(her)” is unchanged. The entire text was printed in Antiqua (Roman type), not fraktur. The letter “ß” was not used, and nouns were not capitalized.
All italics are in the original. Emphasis printed as gesperrt (spaced-out type) has been changed to boldface.