Ainu language

For the language family, see Ainu languages.
Not to be confused with the Äynu language.
Hokkaido Ainu
アイヌ・イタㇰ Aynu=itak
Pronunciation [ˈainu iˈtak]
Native to Japan
Region Hokkaido
Ethnicity 15,000 Ainu people in Japan (no date)[1]
Native speakers
 10 (2007)[2]
Ainu
  • Hokkaido Ainu
Katakana, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ain
Glottolog ainu1240[3]

Ainu (/ˈaɪnuː/;[4] Ainu: アイヌ・イタㇰ Aynu=itak; Japanese: アイヌ語 Ainu-go) or Hokkaido Ainu is the sole survivor of the Ainu languages. It is spoken by members of the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Until the 20th century, Ainu languages were also spoken throughout the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in the Kuril Islands. There were at least 19 dialects of the Ainu languages. Only the Hokkaido variant survives, the last speaker of Sakhalin Ainu having died in 1994. Hokkaido Ainu is moribund, though attempts are being made to revive it.

Ainu has no generally accepted genealogical relationship to any other language family. (For the most frequent proposals, see Ainu languages.)

Speakers

Pirka Kotan Museum, an Ainu language and cultural center in Sapporo (Jozankei area)

Depending on the classification system used, Ainu could be considered a moribund language or a critically endangered language. As of 2016, Ethnologue lists Ainu as class 8b: "nearly extinct."[5] It has been endangered since before the 1960s. Most of the approximately 15,000 ethnic Ainu in Japan speak only Japanese. During the 1980s, in the town of Nibutani (part of Biratori, Hokkaido), where many of the remaining native speakers live, there were 100 speakers, of whom only fifteen used the language every day.

Today, there are only around ten native speakers remaining, all of whom are at least 80 years old. There are also some semi-speakers who are at least 60 years old. Most of these speakers live in southwestern Hokkaido.[6]

Revitalization

There is an active movement to revitalize the language, mainly in Hokkaido but also elsewhere. Ainu oral literature has been documented both in hopes of safeguarding it for future generations, as well as using it as a teaching tool for language learners.[6] Beginning in 1987, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido began hosting Ainu language classes, and have released instructional materials on the language, including a textbook.[6]

Due to the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act of 1997, Ainu dictionaries transformed and became tools for improving communication and preserving records of the Ainu language in order to revitalize the language and promote the culture.[7] There is now an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaido, in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist and former Diet member Shigeru Kayano, himself a native speaker. The Ainu Association of Hokkaido is the main supporter of Ainu culture in Hokkaido. Ainu language classes have been conducted in some areas in Japan and small numbers of young people are learning Ainu. Efforts have also been made to produce web-accessible materials for conversational Ainu because most documentation of the Ainu language focused on the recording of folktales.[8]

Phonology

Ainu syllables are CV(C), that is, they have an obligatory syllable onset and an optional syllable coda. There are few consonant clusters.

Vowels

There are five vowel sounds in Ainu:

  Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-
velar		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k
Affricate ts
Nasal m n
Fricative s h
Approximant w j
Tap ɾ

Plosives /p t ts k/ may be voiced [b d dz ɡ] between vowels and after nasals. Both /ti/ and /tsi/ are realized as [t͡ʃi], and /s/ becomes [ʃ] before /i/ and at the end of syllables. There is some variation among dialects; in the Sakhalin dialect, syllable-final /p, t, k, r/ lenited and merged into /x/. After an /i/, this /x/ is pronounced [ç]. A glottal stop [ʔ] is often inserted at the beginning of words, before an accented vowel, but is non-phonemic.

There is a pitch accent system. The accentuation of specific words varies somewhat from dialect to dialect. Generally, words including affixes have a high pitch on the stem, or on the first syllable if it is closed or has a diphthong, while other words have the high pitch on the second syllable, although there are exceptions to this generalization.

Typology and grammar

Typologically, Ainu is similar in word order (and some aspects of phonology) to Japanese.

Ainu has a canonical word order of SOV,[9] and it uses postpositions rather than prepositions. Nouns can cluster to modify one another; the head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently either transitive or intransitive, accept various derivational affixes. Ainu does not have grammatical gender. Plurals are indicated by a suffix.[9]

Classical Ainu, the language of the yukar, is polysynthetic, with incorporation of nouns and adverbs; this is greatly reduced in the modern colloquial language.

Applicatives may be used in Ainu to place nouns in the dative, instrumental, comitative, locative, allative, or ablative roles. Besides freestanding nouns, these roles may be assigned to incorporated nouns, and such use of applicatives is in fact mandatory for incorporating oblique nouns. Like incorporation, applicatives have grown less common in the modern language.

Ainu has a closed class of plural verbs, and some of these are suppletive.

Writing

The Ainu language is written in a modified version of the Japanese katakana syllabary. There is also a Latin-based alphabet in use. The Ainu Times publishes in both. In the Latin orthography, /ts/ is spelled c and /j/ is spelled y; the glottal stop, [ʔ], which only occurs initially before accented vowels, is not written. Other phonemes use the same character as the IPA transcription given above. An equals sign (=) is used to mark morpheme boundaries, such as after a prefix. Its pitch accent is denoted by acute accent in Latin script (e.g., á). This is usually not denoted in katakana.

Rev. John Batchelor was an English missionary who lived among the Ainu, studied them and published many works on the Ainu language.[10][11] Batchelor wrote extensively, both works about the Ainu language and works in Ainu itself. He was the first to write in Ainu and use a writing system for it.[12] Batchelor's translation of the New Testament was published in Yokohama in 1897 by a joint committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland. Other books written in Ainu include dictionaries, a grammar, and books on Ainu culture and language.[13]

Special katakana for the Ainu language

A Unicode standard exists for a set of extended katakana (Katakana Phonetic Extensions) for transliterating the Ainu language and other languages written with katakana.[14] These characters are used to write final consonants and sounds that cannot be expressed using conventional katakana. The extended katakana are based on regular katakana and either are smaller in size or have a handakuten. As few fonts yet support these extensions, workarounds exist for many of the characters, such as using a smaller font with the regular katakana ク ku to produce ク to represent the separate small katakana glyph ㇰ ku used as in アイヌイタㇰ (Aynu itak).

This is a list of special katakana used in transcribing the Ainu language. Most of the characters are of the extended set of katakana, though a few have been used historically in Japanese, and thus are part of the main set of katakana. A number of previously proposed characters have not been added to Unicode as they can be represented as a sequence of two existing codepoints.

Character Unicode Name Ainu usage
ㇰ 31F0 Katakana Letter Small Ku Final k
ㇱ 31F1 Katakana Letter Small Shi Final s [ɕ]
ㇲ 31F2 Katakana Letter Small Su Final s, used to emphasize its pronunciation as [s] rather than [ɕ]. [s] and [ʃ] are allophones in Ainu.
ㇳ 31F3 Katakana Letter Small To Final t
ㇴ 31F4 Katakana Letter Small Nu Final n
ㇵ 31F5 Katakana Letter Small Ha Final h [x], succeeding the vowel a. (e.g. アㇵ ah) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇶ 31F6 Katakana Letter Small Hi Final h [ç], succeeding the vowel i. (e.g. イㇶ ih) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇷ 31F7 Katakana Letter Small Fu Final h [x], succeeding the vowel u. (e.g. ウㇷ uh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇸ 31F8 Katakana Letter Small He Final h [x], succeeding the vowel e. (e.g. エㇸ eh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇹ 31F9 Katakana Letter Small Ho Final h [x], succeeding the vowel o. (e.g. オㇹ oh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇺ 31FA Katakana Letter Small Mu Final m
ㇻ 31FB Katakana Letter Small Ra Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel a. (e.g. アㇻ ar)
ㇼ 31FC Katakana Letter Small Ri Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel i. (e.g. イㇼ ir)
ㇽ 31FD Katakana Letter Small Ru Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel u. (e.g. ウㇽ ur)
ㇾ 31FE Katakana Letter Small Re Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel e. (e.g. エㇾ er)
ㇿ 31FF Katakana Letter Small Ro Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel o. (e.g. オㇿ or)
Characters represented using combining characters
ㇷ゚ 31F7 + 309A Katakana Letter Small Pu Final p
セ゚ 30BB + 309A Katakana Letter Se With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark ce [tse]
ツ゚ 30C4 + 309A Katakana Letter Tu With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark tu. ツ゚ and ト゚ are interchangeable.
ト゚ 30C8 + 309A Katakana Letter To With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark

Basic syllables

a
[a] 		i
[i] 		u
[u̜] 		e
[e] 		o
[o]
a ア
[a] 		i イ
[i] 		u ウ
[u̜] 		e エ
[e] 		o オ
[o]
k
[k][note 1] 		ka カ
[ka] 		ki キ
[ki] 		ku ク
[ku̜] 		ke ケ
[ke] 		ko コ
[ko]
-k ㇰ
[-k̚]
s
[s] ~ [ʃ] 		sa シャ / サ[note 2]
[sa] ~ [ʃa] 		si シ
[ʃi] 		su シュ / ス[note 2]
[su̜] ~ [ʃu̜] 		se シェ / セ[note 2]
[se] ~ [ʃe] 		so ショ / ソ[note 2]
[so] ~ [ʃo]
-s ㇱ / ㇲ[note 2]
[-ɕ]
t
[t][note 1] 		ta タ
[ta] 		ci チ
[tʃi] 		tu ト゚ / ツ゚[note 2]
[tu̜] 		te テ
[te] 		to ト
[to]
-t ㇳ / ッ[note 3]
[-t̚]
c
[ts] ~ [tʃ][note 1] 		ca チャ
[tsa] ~ [tʃa] 		ci チ
[tʃi] 		cu ツ / チュ[note 2]
[tsu̜] ~ [tʃu̜] 		ce セ゚ / チェ[note 2]
[tse] ~ [tʃe] 		co チョ
[tso] ~ [tʃo]
n
[n] 		na ナ
[na] 		ni ニ
[nʲi] 		nu ヌ
[nu̜] 		ne ネ
[ne] 		no ノ
[no]
-n ㇴ / ン[note 4]
[-n, -m-, -ŋ-][note 5]
h[note 6]
[h] 		ha ハ
[ha] 		hi ヒ
[çi] 		hu フ
[ɸu̜] 		he ヘ
[he] 		ho ホ
[ho]
-h[note 6]
[-x] 		-ah ㇵ
[-ax] 		-ih ㇶ
[-iç] 		-uh ㇷ
[-u̜x] 		-eh ㇸ
[-ex] 		-oh ㇹ
[-ox]
p
[p][note 1] 		pa パ
[pa] 		pi ピ
[pi] 		pu プ
[pu̜] 		pe ペ
[pe] 		po ポ
[po]
-p ㇷ゚
[-p̚]
m
[m] 		ma マ
[ma] 		mi ミ
[mi] 		mu ム
[mu̜] 		me メ
[me] 		mo モ
[mo]
-m ㇺ
[-m]
y
[j] 		ya ヤ
[ja] 		yu ユ
[ju̜] 		ye イェ
[je] 		yo ヨ
[jo]
r
[ɾ] 		ra ラ
[ɾa] 		ri リ
[ɾi] 		ru ル
[ɾu̜] 		re レ
[ɾe] 		ro ロ
[ɾo]
-ar ㇻ
[-aɾ] 		-ir ㇼ
[-iɾ] 		-ur ㇽ
[-u̜ɾ] 		-er ㇾ
[-eɾ] 		-or ㇿ
[-oɾ]
-r ㇽ
[-ɾ]
w
[w] 		wa ワ
[wa] 		wi ウィ / ヰ[note 2]
[wi] 		we ウェ / ヱ[note 2]
[we] 		wo ウォ / ヲ[note 2]
[wo]
  1. 1 2 3 4 k, t, c, p are sometimes voiced [ɡ], [d], [dz] ~ [dʒ], [b], respectively. It does not change the meaning of a word, but it sounds more rough/masculine. When they are voiced, they may be written as g, d, j, dz, b, ガ, ダ, ヂャ, ヅァ, バ, etc.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Either may be used according to actual pronunciations, or to writer's preferred styles.
  3. ↑ ッ is final t at the end of a word. (e.g. pet = ペッ = ペㇳ) In the middle of a polysyllabic word, it is a final consonant preceding the initial with a same value. (e.g. orta /otta/ = オッタ. オㇿタ is not preferred.)
  4. ↑ At the end of a word, n can be written either ㇴ or ン. In the middle of a polysyllabic word, it is ン. (e.g. tan-mosir = タンモシㇼ = タㇴ+モシㇼ, but not タㇴモシㇼ.)
  5. ↑ [m] before [p], [ŋ] before [k], [n] elsewhere. Unlike Japanese, it does not become other sounds such as nasal vowels.
  6. 1 2 Initial h [h] and final h [x] are different phonemes. Final h exists in Sakhalin dialect only.

Diphthongs

Final [j] is spelled y in Latin, small ィ in katakana. Final [ʊ] is spelled w in Latin, small ゥ in katakana. [ae] is spelled ae, アエ, or アェ.

Example with initial k:

[kaɪ] [ku̜ɪ] [koɪ] [kaʊ] [kiʊ] [keʊ] [koʊ] [keɪ]
kay kuy koy kaw kiw kew kow key
カィ クィ コィ カゥ キゥ ケゥ コゥ ケィ

Since the above rule is used systematically, some katakana combinations have different sounds from conventional Japanese.

ウィ クィ スィ ティ トゥ フィ
Ainu [u̜ɪ] [ku̜ɪ] [su̜ɪ] [teɪ] [toʊ] [ɸu̜ɪ]
Japanese [wi] [kʷi] [si] [ti] [tu͍] [ɸi]

Long vowels

There are long vowels in the Sakhalin dialect. Either a circumflex or macron is used in the Latin alphabet, and the long vowel sign (ー) is used in katakana.

Example with initial k:

[kaː] [kiː] [kuː] [keː] [koː]
kâ kî kû kê kô
kā kī kū kē kō
カー キー クー ケー コー

Oral literature

The Ainu have a rich oral tradition of hero-sagas called yukar, which retain a number of grammatical and lexical archaisms. Yukar was memorized and told at get togethers and ceremonies that often lasted hours or even days. The Ainu also have another form of narrative often used called "Uepeker", which was used in the same contexts.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Ainu language at Ethnologue (8th ed., 1974). Note: Data may come from an earlier edition.
  2. ↑ D. Bradley, "Languages of Mainland South-East Asia," in O. Miyaoka, O. Sakiyama, and M. E. Krauss (eds), The vanishing languages of the Pacific Rim, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2007), pp. 301–336. .
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Ainu (Japan)". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  5. ↑ Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2016. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
  6. 1 2 3 Vanishing Languages of the Pacific Rim. Oxford, GB: OUP Oxford. 2007-01-01. pp. 377–382. ISBN 9780191532894.
  7. ↑ Hansen, A.S. (2014). "Re-vitalizing an indigenous language: Dictionaries of Ainu languages in Japan, 1625-2013". Lexicographica. 30 (1): 547-578.
  8. ↑ Bugaeva, Anna (2010). "Internet applications for endangered languages: A talking dictionary of Ainu". Waseda Institute for Advanced Study Research Bulletin 3: 73–81.
  9. 1 2 "Ainu". Wals.info. Retrieved 2012-07-29.
  10. ↑ Frédéric, Louis (2005). "Ainu". Japan encyclopedia. Käthe Roth, translator (illustrated, reprint ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 13. ISBN 0-674-01753-6.
  11. ↑ Ivar Lissner (1957). The living past (4 ed.). Putnam's. p. 204. Retrieved 23 April 2012. In 1877 a young and industrious theologian went to visit the Ainu. His name was John Batchelor, and he was a scientist and missionary. He got to know the Ainu well, studied their language and customs, won their affection, and remained their staunch friend until the end of his days. It is to Batchelor that we owe our deepest insight into the[Original from the University of California Digitized Jan 27, 2009 Length 444 pages]
  12. ↑ John Patric (1943). ...Why Japan was strong (4 ed.). Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. p. 72. Retrieved 23 April 2012. John Batchelor set about to learn the Ainu language, which the Japanese had not troubled ever to learn. He laboriously compiled an Ainu dictionary. He singlehandedly turned this hitherto but spoken tongue into a written language, and himself wrote books in it.[Original from the University of California Digitized Oct 16, 2007 Length 313 pages]
  13. ↑ ethnologue.com
  14. ↑ See this page at alanwood.net and this section of the Unicode specification.

References

Further reading

External links

Ainu language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Ainu phrasebook.
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