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The phonemics and morphology of Hokkaido Ainu

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The phonemics and morphology of Hokkaido Ainu

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Content This dissertation has been
microfilmed exactly as received 68-17,042
SIMEON, George John, 1934-
THE PHONEMICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF HOKKAIDO
AINU.
University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1968
Language and Literature, linguistics
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
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THE PHONEMICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF HOKKAIDO AINU
by
George John Simeon
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Linguistics)
August 1968
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U N IV E R S IT Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA
T H E G R A D U A T E S C H O O L
U N IV E R S IT Y PA RK
LO S A N G E L E S , C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This dissertatioiij written by
Ggor&e Sime^ ...............
under the direction of /z .l.R ... Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fu lfillm e n t of requirements
fo r the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y
D ean
Bate..
DISSERTATION C O M M ITTE E
C hairm an
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my informants, Shigeru Kayano, Taro
Sasaki, and Haru Itaku for their patience and cooperation. I am also
grateful for the guidance of my dissertation committee: Drs. William
Brown, Robert Kaplan, and Rudolph Zrimc.
Above all, however, I wish to express ray everlasting gratitude
to Dr. Paul L. Garvin of the Bunker-Ramo Corporation, Canoga Park,
California, who through course work and private discussions taught me
how to elicit, analyze, and present linguistic data.
The definitions employed in this work are based partly on my
interpretation of Dr. Garvin's papers in On Linguistic Method.
However, I am solely responsible for the format of this structural
sketch, and any errors which may be present, both in regard to
analysis and presentations, are my responsibility.
11
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The following abbreviations will be used:
Hi Hiratori
Ho Horobetsu
HS Higashi Shizunai
s. singular
pi. plural
lit. literally
111
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CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .... ....................................... ü
INTRODUCTION......................... 1
Chapter
I. PHONEMICS............................................. 7
1.0. Types of Phonemic Units ......................... 7
1.1. Fused Units ..................................... 8
1.1.1. Prosodic features ....................... 9
1.2. Phonemes....................................... 12
1.2.1. Phoneme inventories ...................... 13
1.2.2. Phoneme variations ...................... 13
1.2.3. Problem areas ............................ 16
1.2.4. Phoneme distribution .................... 17
1.2.5. Vowel distribution . . ................. 17
1.2.6. Consonant distribution ................. 18
11. MORPHOPHONEMICS...................... 20
2 . 0 20
2.0.1. The phonemic shape of morphemes in
isolation......... 20
2.0.2. The phonemic shape of morphemes and
morpheme boundaries ................... 21
2.1. Phonemic Variability of Morphemes with Regard
to Sandhi..................................... 22
2.1.1. Morpbophonemic variations in final sandhi . 22
2.1.2. Assimilation ........................... 22
2.1.3. Assimilation and truncation ............. 23
2.1.4. Dissimilation ........................... 23
2.1.5. Elision ................................. 24
2.1.6. Elision and truncation ................. 24
IV
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Chapter Page
2.2. Truncation..................................... 24
25
25
25
2.3. Linking Semivowel . .
2.4. Reduplication . . . .
2.5. Morpheme Alternation
III. MORPHOLOGY
3.0.
3.1. Part I : Thematic Morphemes ............
........ 30
3.1.1. The verb .....................
........ 30
3.1.2. The copula ....................
........ 38
3.1.3. The adverb ...................
........ 39
3.1.4. The noun .....................
........ 40
3.1.5. The pronoun ....................
........ 41
3.1.6. Tlie numeral...................
3.1.7. The adnoun ...................
........ 47
3.1.8. The particle ..................
........ 49
3.1.9. The conjunction ................
3.2.0. Morphemic components ..........
........ 52
3.3. Part II: Paradigmatic Morphemes
3.3.1. The preposition .
3.3.2. The postposition
27
53
54
56
IV. CONCLUSION........................................... 63
APPENDIX I........... ■ ............... 66
APPENDIX II................................................... 72
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................. 75
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INTRODUCTION
This presentation of the phonemics and morphology of the
Hokkaido Ainu language is based on field work which was carried out
during June and July of 1967 in Hokkaido, Japan. The intermediate
language used was Japanese.
In order that my experience may be of benefit to other
anthropological linguists who wish to work on Ainu, I shall briefly
describe my approach to the problem of gathering data on this language.
As far as I have been able to ascertain, prior to my research no
Western linguist has ever worked first hand on Hokkaido Ainu with a
synchronic description of the language as the main objective. I have
also been unable to locate any published, reasonably complete,
grammars of Hokkaido Ainu in the Japanese language, but this of course
does not mean that none exist. I stress Hokkaido because the Ainu of
the Kurile and Sakhalin Islands is different enough that most of what
I say in this work will not be applicable to those "dialects," using
this word advisedly. Hokkaido Ainu is, in fact, itself divided into
a number of dialects, perhaps fourteen or so, the exact degree of
mutual intelligibility of whose speakers is not known at all, except
impressionistically. The range of mutual intelligibility is, however,
quite great.
My work was confined to three of the southern Hokkaido dia
lects, viz., the Horobetsu, Hiratori, and Higashi Shizunai. I had
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2
i neither the time nor the funds to conduct an investigation of mutual
! intelligibility among these three dialects, but impressionistically,
at least, it seems that a speaker of any of the three dialects could
easily converse with and be understood by one of the other speakers.
In fact, my two male informants from the Hiratori and Higashi Shizunai
dialects often volunteered forms which they said they did not use but
which they said were used by speakers of the other dialect. The two
male informants also knew each other.
My initial contact with Ainu came through 42-year-old Shigeru
Kayano, a male speaker of the Hiratori dialect. He is an incomparable
informant and one of the very few fluent speakers of Hokkaido Ainu.
As Xinu is a language which is rapidly dying out, Kayano may well be
the only individual under 50 years of age with a native-like command
of his ancestors' speech. In fact, perhaps only about SO or so
Hokkaido Ainu speak their language well. Many Ainu know basic vocabu
lary, and a few others can recite tales and give set orations, but
very few can manipulate and improvise with the language. Some Ainu
in Nibutani still use the language among themselves, but elsewhere
Japanese has replaced Ainu as the vehicle of communication. I would
estimate that the next ten years will witness the death of all but a
few Ainu speakers.
Realizing all this, Kayano has tape recorded over thirty hours
of tales from older Ainu. He is also an amateur student of the
language and knowledgeable about some of the other dialects. Also
interesting is the fact that Kayano's pronunciation of Japanese shows
the influence of Ainu. It was with this informant that my basic
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3
and most important work was carried out.
My second informant was 84-year-old Haru Itaku, a female
speaker of the Horobetsu dialect. She was a monolingual speaker until
the age of sixteen at which time she went to work as a cook for John
Batchelor, a British missionary among the Ainu (b. 1854, d. 19 ).
Batchelor lived for many years among the Ainu, learned to
speak the language fluently, and wrote several books, including a
dictionary of the language with a grammatical appendix. Unfortunately,
the dictionary and grammar both suffer, because many dialects are
mixed together without an,attempt to separate the vocabulary and
features of each. The grammar, furthermore, is an ad hoc attempt to
force Ainu into an ill-fitting Indo-European mold. However, we must
remember that Batchelor’s works were published in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century, and he was thus only following a
well-established tradition. Furthermore, he was a missionary, not a
linguist, and had little to go on in the way of prior works on Ainu.
In the light of all this, his achievements were indeed remarkable.
I tested the transcriptional accuracy of Batchelor’s gram
matical outline by translating many of his English glosses of Ainu
words and sentences into Japanese and then eliciting the Ainu
equivalents from my informants. In most cases the responses were,
allowing for dialectal diversity, either similar to or exactly the
same as what Batchelor had transcribed. Furthermore, I learned from
Haru Itaku that one of the missionary’s main informants, and a man
whom she knew, was Kyokawa Inushite, an important Ainu and a speaker
of Niikappu which is a southern Hokkaido dialect as were the three
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4
which I investigated.
In addition, it was Batchelor who began to teach my Horobetsu
: informant Japanese which she still speaks with an Ainu accent. He
; also gave her an Ainu name, many of the Ainu having long ago abandoned
their names in favor of Japanese ones.
My third principal informant was 62-year-old Taro Sasaki, a
male speaker of the Higashi Shizunai dialect which is the Ainu dialect
closest to the Niikappu speech. My work with him concentrated mainly
on the gathering of textual material, mostly of an autobiographical
nature. Taro Sasaki has a vast, very deep knowledge of Ainu religion
and tradition; furthermore, he is cognizant of dialectical differences
and has a great love for his language.
Other Ainu also contributed short texts, songs, and individual
words, but with the exception of two songs collected from an Ainu
woman in Shiraoi, all were speakers of the Hiratori dialect.
In addition, an opportunity to let a Shiraoi dialect speaker
hear my taped Horobetsu material presented itself. 1 found that the
Shiraoi speaker had no trouble in understanding the Horobetsu dialect
as was proved by his translation of it into Japanese.
Unfortunately, it was not possible, nor feasible under the
circumstances, to elicit exactly the same material from all my
informants and then to compare it. A truly composite grammar of the
three dialects could then have been written and all the dialectal
differences noted. In some cases, however, duplication for the sake
of comparison was obtained; but the outline is mainly a sketch of the
Hiratori dialect supplemented by Horobetsu and Higashi Shizunai
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i 5
I
I materials. Dialectal differences are, of course, noted when definite
I evidence is available, but the reader must not assume that because no
variant is listed the three dialects all agree. More often than not,
they probably do, but to what extent may never be fully known due to
the fact that poor health and advancing age may take their toll of ray
Horobetsu and Higashi Shizunai informants before I can work with them
again; and, as far as I know, they are the last fluent speakers of
their respective dialects.
It can, however, be assumed that the material presented in
this sketch is, in general, intelligible to the speakers of the three
dialects.
Thus far, I have made no mention of the genetic relationships
of Ainu, probable or otherwise. This is simply because I, along with
other linguists, do not know. Much more detailed comparative work
needs to be done before even a tentative speculation can be hazarded.
The following outline is a sketch not of a living language nor
of a dead language but of a dying one which has been sadly neglected
by modern linguists. It is a description of a language gathered from
informants who can still speak Ainu but who seldom do.
I was thus faced with difficulties peculiar to the description
of a language on the verge of extinction. The linguist who describes
a dead language .can use the extant textual material. The linguist
describing a fully viable language usually begins by describing the
dialect considered to be the norm for the community by the native
speakers. My informants, with the exception of Shigeru Kayano, had
seldom used or heard Ainu spoken in the past few decades. The forms I
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6
: obtained were, therefore, those that the informants remembered from
: earlier years.
I present this sketch, not only as an increment to our
knowledge of the world's languages, but also in the hope that com-
parativists will now be able to move one step closer in their attempts
to determine the linguistic affinities of Ainu. Their work, coupled
with that of archeologists and ethnobotanists, may eventually help
to reveal the original homeland of the Ainu.
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PHONEMICS
1.0 Types of Phonemic Units
In Ainu, there are four types of analytic units on the phonemic
level of structuring: the phoneme and phoneme cluster, the syllable,
the contour, and the phonemic phrase.
The phoneme is the minimal differentiating unit of the
language, while the phoneme cluster is an uninterrupted sequence of
two or more phonemes of the same type, i.e., either a vowel cluster or
a consonant cluster.
The syllable, the carrier of stress, was determined by asking
the informant to syllabate, i.e., to speak slowly. In Ainu the
syllable is not a phonemic unit since syllable boundaries are pre
dictable on the basis of the linear ordering of vowels and consonants.
The contour is a sequence of phonologic units bounded by two
medial junctures, or by a medial juncture and a terminal juncture, or
by a medial juncture and the start or finish of an utterance.
The phonemic phrase is a sequence of phonologic units bounded
by two terminal junctures or by a terminal juncture and the start or
finish of an utterance.
These phonemic units are presented in terms of the fusion of
one into the other which results in fused units of a progressively
higher order together with the prosodic features proper to each one:
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8
phonemic phrases with terminal junctures; contours with medial
juncture and contour configurations; syllables with stresses. Finally,
the phonetics and distribution of phoneme clusters and segmental
phonemes is presented within the frame of reference of the contour.
The morphemic structure of the examples' is not taken into account in
the phonemic analysis or presentation.
1.1 Fused Units
Ainu speech is naturally segmented into phonemic phrases which
are sequences of phonemes occurring between silence and a relatively
long pause (the length varying from fractions of a second to seconds),
or between two such pauses, or between such a pause and silence.
Pause, coupled with a set of prosodic characteristics, results
in two terminal junctures: level juncture (symbol: /|/) and rising
juncture (symbol: /||/).
A subdivision of the phonemic phrase results in contours which
are sequences of phonemes contained between a terminal juncture or
silence, and a relatively short pause (shorter than phonemic-phrase-
final pause), or between two such pauses, or between such a pause and
terminal juncture, or silence.
Contour pause is termed medial juncture and is marked by space
when it coincides with word boundaries. Space also marks contour
boundaries coinciding with word boundaries. Within words, medial
juncture is marked by the symbol /+/. A superscript ligature /''/
links words contained between the same contour, while a da^ i /-/ links
morphemes.
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9
In addition, the contour is set off by an over-all intonation
line or contour configuration.
A subdivision of the contour results in syllables which are
the smallest sequences of phonemes spoken separately at dictation
speed. The boundaries of syllables are not marked, as they can be
predicted by the phonemic make-up of the contour. In addition, each
syllable is characterized by one of three stress levels.
The prosodic features which 1 treat are those that serve a
communicative function in conjunction with their fused units.
Functions of a paralinguistic nature also occur, but their delineation
has not been worked out as yet.
1.1.1 Prosodic features.— Two types of phonemic phrases exist
in terms of contour content: simple and complex. Simple phonemic
phrases are made up of one contour, while complex phonemic phrases
contain more than one contour. The simple, or one-contour, phonemic
phrase has the greatest number of individual occurrences, but, in
total, complex phonemic phrases occur more often. The complex phonemic
phrase may include up to five contours, but two contours are the norm.
Level juncture and rising juncture occur with both phrase
types. Level juncture C/|/) denotes the finish of an utterance and
implies that a new utterance is about to begin. Phonetically, it
consists of a relatively long pause together with moderate lengthening
of the phrase-final phoneme, vowel or consonant.
Rising juncture (/||/) usually denotes the finish of an
utterance with no implication that a new utterance will begin.
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10
Phonetically, it consists of a long pause together with a rising
intonation line of the final contour of the phonemic phrase, the line
reaching its peak at the phrase-final syllable and then gradually
dropping. This is coupled with moderate lengthening of the phrase-
final phoneme, vowel or consonant.
Examples are: simple phrase with level juncture: anutaf^esi|
you (pi. polite) came.
Simple phrase with rising juncture: pakno^ne^ruwe'^ne'^na| |
that's all for now (lit: sufficienf^copula^affirmative-
particle^copula^ conclusive-particle).
Complex phrase with level juncture: kifkoro'^kotan
tapaiTMopet| my village is Mopet (lit: I^pwssessed^village
this^Mopet).
Complex phrase with rising juncture: emkota ariki^an||
come quickly 1 (lit: very-quickly commis).
A contour may vary in length from one to nine syllables, but
four-to-six-syllable contours are more common with five-syllable
contours being the most common. One-syllable contours occur mainly
in informant words, i.e., isolated examples elicited from informants
during the linguistic analysis.
The joining of morphemic units within contours is very stable,
since those groupings that are identical with idioms and phrases are
the more common ones.
In addition, the contour is set off by an over-all intonation
line or contour configuration. Thus far, one type of contour con
figuration has been ascertained for Ainu: neutral configuration (not
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11
marked by a special symbol). Phonetically, it consists of a level
intonation line with slight lengthening of the contour-final phoneme,
vowel or consonant. Neutral configuration marks the transition to the
next contour. An example is: kuani-anak^ne as for me (lit:
I-as-for^copula).
The point of syllable division falls between two syllabic
vowels, between two consonants, and between a syllabic or nonsyllabic
vowel and a following intervocalic consonant. Dots on the line
indicate the points of syllable division.
Examples are: between two vowels — a.e-p food; between two
consonants — nis.pa master; between vowel and consonant — ko.tan
village.
The contour is thus made up of certain characteristic syllable
types. In indicating these, /V/ denotes any vowel or diphthong;
/C/ denotes any single consonant.
The syllable types occurring in any position within the
contour are: V, CV, VC, CYC.
Examples are: V in contour-initial -- /ay/ in ay.nu^i.tak
[the] Ainu language; V in contour-medial — /e/ in otTte.e.ta
very ancient times; V in contour-final — /a/ in e'^arap^a have you
gone? (lit; you^gone^question-particle); CV in contour-initial —
/ha/ in ha.weCne.-ya.kun [thus I] speak (lit: spokeTis-if);
CV in contour-medial — /ro/ in ko.roCsi.nut.ca their song (lit:
they-had^song); CV in contour-final — /ka/ in pi.ri.ka good; VC in
contour-initial — /en/ in en.-ko.r-e please [lit: me-gave); VC in
contour-medial — /an/ in e.neC^n.ka.tu [in] such [a] form (lit:
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12
thus^is^form; VC in contour-final — /ek/ in hen.neTek don't come;
CVC in contour-initial -- /tan/ in tan.to today; CVC in contour-
medial — /kus/ in si.kusTwen bad weather (lit: weather^is-bad);
CVC in contour-final — /sam/ in pi.rak.kaTi.sam [the] wooden clogs
are gone (lit: wooden-clogs^are-not].
Syllables are also characterized by one of three stress
levels. They are: primary stress, secondary stress, and absence of
stress. One primarily stressed syllable occurs within a contour, and
it coincides with the contour-final syllable. When the contour-final
syllable is also a phonemic phrase-final syllable, the stress is more
pronounced, but whether or not this constitutes an additional stress
level or is merely a variant of primary stress has n,pt been determined
as yet. Thus far,- no limitation seems to govern the number of
secondarily stressed or unstressed syllables within a contour.
No minimum pairs were found for any degree of stress, and thus
it does not appear to be distinctive,^ Nevertheless, secondary stress
has not, as of this writing, been found to be predictable in terms of
the phonemic environment. Consequently, it is written with the
symbol /^/.
Phonetically, primary and secondary stress are coterminous
with an increased intensity of the stressed vowel.
1.2 Phonemes
The phonemes of Ainu are the vowels and consonants. The
matrix of their distribution is the contour, and thus both individual
phonemes and phoneme clusters are described in regard to their
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! 13
I
I contour-initial, contour-medial, and contour-final possibilities of
i
i occurrence.
1.2.1 Phoneme inventories.— The three dialects of Ainu under
discussion, the Hiratori, the Horobetsu, and the Higashi Shizunai have
five determinate syllabic vowels : a, o, e, u, i, and two nonsyllabic
vowels or semivowels: w, y.
The contrast of the phonetically similar vowel pairs a and o,
a and e, and u and i in the three dialects is shown from the following
minimum pairs: ora after — oro apa doorway — ape fire;
a-nu is heard — ani with.
The three dialects have the following nine consonants: p, t,
k, c (affricate), h, s, m, n, and r.
One case of neutralization occurs: in the Horobetsu dialect
the contrast of the [h] allophone of h and the palatalized allophone,
[s], of s is neutralized before i. hi and si are thus in free
variation. An example is: unihi ~ unisi ( my) home.
All other contrasts are preserved in all other positions.
1.2.2 Phoneme variations.— Positional variation occurs in
vowels and free and positional variation in consonants, p, t, k, c,
have somewhat more positional variation in the Higashi Shizunai
dialect than in the Horobetsu dialect and a great deal more positional
variation than in the Hiratori dialect. k,n exhibit positional
variation in the Horobetsu dialect somewhat different from that of
the other two dialects. Other consonants, as well as all vowels, have
close-to-identical allophones in the three dialects.
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14
! In all three dialects the syllabic vowels are lengthened in
I open syllables but less so than when they are in contour-final
position. This lengthening is, in turn, less than that of syllabic
vowels in phonemic phrase-final position. An example is: kuani« | I ^ .
In addition, the syllabic vowels of the three dialects
undergo a devoicing (symbol V^, where V denotes any vowel) when they
are contour-final vowels in open syllables. If this position coincides
with phonemic phrase-final position as welLy the devoicing effect is
more marked. An example is: pirikà^sèta^|| good dog.
a, the open, unrounded, central vowel, is pronounced at a low
point of articulation in all positions: kara he made.
The close, rounded, low back vowel o also has but one range
of allophones: ota sand.
e is an open, unrounded, mid front vowel in all positions:
kes spot.
The close, rounded, high back vowel u has an unrounded
allophone before y; various degrees of unrounding also occasionally
occur in other positions, but the nature of this variation, whether
free or positional, has not been determined as yet; susu willow,
kamuy [kam'^^J god, kusu [k^s^] because.
The close, unrounded, high front vowel i has one range of
allophones in the Hi and Ho dialects and a voiceless variant which
sometimes occurs between s and a voiceless stop in the HS dialect :
kim mountain, sita [s^ta] dog.
w and y are considered nonsyllabic vowels and treated in
conjunction with other vowels rather than consonants because:
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15
1) they are phonetically similar to u and i, 2) their clustering
pattern is not identical to that of consonants, 3) they lack a marked
allophonic range, as do most of the vowels, and 4) they undergo the
same type of elision as the syllabic vowels. ^
Nonsyllabic vowels will henceforth be termed semivowels.
The semivowel w has, in all three dialects, reduced allo
phones as the final part of diphthongs, fully articulated allophones
elsewhere: inaw [ina'^] (wood) offering, wa from.
\
Nonsyllabic y also has reduced allophones in diphthong-final
position, fully articulated allophones elsewhere: aynu [a^nu] man,
yupo elder brother.
The stops p, t, k are voiceless fortis and articulated at
bilabial, alveolar, and velar points of articulation respectively.
In the Ho and HS dialects, intervocalic p, t have voiced
lenis allophones, [b], [d]; however, [b], [d] are less common than
intervocalic [p], [t], especially in the Ho dialect: hapo [habo]
mother, ante [ande] he put down.
Intervocalic k has a seldom occurring voiced lenis allophone
[g] in the HS dialect : yakun [yagun] if.
Before i in the Ho dialect, a palatalized allophone of k,
[k^], sometimes occurs: miki [mik^i] father; in the HS and Hi dialects
father is mici.
In final position, all three dialects have frequently occurring
unreleased variants of p, t, k: [p~], [t~], [k"j; impressionistically
these allophones appear more frequently in the Hi dialect : nisap
[nisap ] quick, at [at ] rope, ek [ek"] he came.
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16
The affricate c is produced at an alveopalatal point of
articulation and has but one allophonic range in the Hi and Ho dia
lects: cup [tsup] sun; a voiced allophone [dz] occasionally occurs
intervocalically in the HS dialect: eci [ed%i] you (pi.).
The spirant h is produced at a glottal point of articula
tion: hoku husband ; in the Ho and HS dialects, a voiceless bilabial
allophone [f] always occurs before u; in the Hi dialect its
occurrence is optional: hure [fure] red.
The spirant s has free variants of various degrees of
palatalization, ranging from [s] to [s] to [s]; however, [s] always
occurs before i in all three dialects: su pot, si [si] very.
Nasals m, n are produced at bilabial and alveolar points of
articulation respectively: mo quiet, nis cloud.
A velar allophone of n, [q], often occurs in final position
and before k in the Ho and HS dialects : kotan [kotaq] village,
ronkay [rorjka^] Ronkay [a male name).
The liquid r is produced at a post-alveolar point of
articulation: ina broad ; voiceless and voiced flapped allophones
[£] and [r] occur medially in all three dialects : pirika [piïika]
good, kopasrota [kopasrota] he scolded.
1.2.3 Problem areas.— Indeterminacy occurs in the following
cases where predictability and/or free variation have not, as yet,
provided sufficient evidence to judge whether the sounds concerned
should be treated as phonemes or allophones: in the Ho dialect one
instance of a voiced velar fricative [g] occurs: [kagapo] [my] elder
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I 1 7
I sister. In the Ho and HS dialects a labialized voiceless velar stop
[k^] sporadically occurs before syllabic vowels: [k^o] i^. In the
Ho dialect, a palatalized alveolar nasal [n^] sporadically occurs
before syllabic vowels: [n^ep] what.
1.2.4 Phoneme distribution.--The distribution of phonemes in
Ainu is characterized by a paucity of vowel clusters and the restricted
nature of consonant clusters.
1.2.5 Vowel distribution.--All vowels are found in initial,
medial, and final position in the three dialects.
Examples are : a — at rope, kara he made; o -- op spear,
poro large; e — en ra£, nepne anything ; u — uturu''uturu
sometimes; i — ita table, siri weather.
Vowel groupings are composed of either two or three syllabic
vowels separated by glottal constriction which ranges from a full
glottal stop to slight tension— vowel clusters, or a syllabic vowel
with adjacent semivowel-diphthongs, or a syllabic vowel with two
adj acent semivowels--triphthongs.
Any syllabic vowel followed by any syllabic vowel may form a
vowel cluster, but not all of the possible clusters occur with equal
frequency. Among the most typical vowel clusters are: aa -- taata
there; oa — toan that; ua — kuani ia — kuani-anak'^ne as for
me (lit: 1-as-for^copula).
A trisyllabic cluster is: eT^a have you eaten (lit:
you^ate^question particle).
The semivowel in diphthongs either precedes the syllabic
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18
: vowel— rising diphthongs, or follows it--£alling diphthongs.
w-initial rising diphthongs are: wa, wo, we. They occur
initially and after both vowels and consonants : wa from, wose it
howled, wen bad.
y-initial rising diphthongs are: ya, yo, ye, yu. They occur
initially and after both vowels and consonants: ya land, yoni it
shrank, ye he said, yuk deer.
w-final falling diphthongs are: aw, ew, uw, iw. They are found
initially and after both vowels and consonants : inaw (wood) offering,
upew medicinal herb, uwonnere he knew, siwnin green.
y-final falling diphthongs are: ay, oy, ey, uy. They are
: found initially and after both vowels and consonants: aynu man,
patoy lips, heheypa he peeked at, uytek he employed.
Some diphthongs contrast with corresponding vowel clusters in
analogous positions : aynu man a-ikka it was stolen.
The only triphthong in my corpus is yay. It occurs initially
and medially: yay-kata one's self.
One geminate diphthong occurs : ayay baby.
1.2.6 Consonant distribution.--Single consonants p, t, k, s,
m, n, r occur initially, medially, and finally; perepa he broke it,
sep broad; teta here, pet river; kamakap weaving loom, mik
it barked ; cep fish, huci grandmother ; heheypa he peeked at;
sisam foreigner, tunas quick; memke he shaved, kim mountain;
nenka somebody, mon labor; riri waves, ker shoes.
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19
Geminate consonants are: pp, tt, kk, ss, mm, nn. All of these
occur only medially: horippa he danced, atte he hung, akkari
than, husse he blew, umma horse, anno annihilation.
The above are cases of rearticulation, rather than of consonant
prolongation, with the second onset weaker than the first. Further
more, the geminate consonants occur in separate syllables--the first
is syllable final, while the second is syllable initial.
Consonant clusters also occur only medially and are of two
types: homorganic and, the most frequently occurring, non-homorganic.
Homorganic clusters are: tn, sn, mp, nt, ns: nupetne
joyful ; pisne seashore; toampe that; akosonte clothing;
wen sikus bad weather.
Non-homorganic clusters include : pk — nepka something;
pt — marapto feast ; ps — tapsutu shoulder; pn — nejAie-yakka
anything ; tp — mitpo grandchild; tc -- katcak weak; tk -- satke
he dried; ts — pet^susu river willow; kp — akpo [my] younger
brother; kt — nucaktek happy ; kn — anak^ne as for; kr —
elT'rusuy he wished to come; sp — nospa he chased; sk — niskuru
cloud; sr — kopasrota he scolded; mk — erako half; ms — humse
he grunted; mn — sisamTni-neyakka also [the] foreign person;
nk — hanke near; nm — tapan^Mopet^kotan this village [of] Mopet;
nr — cinru snow shoes.
One three consonant cluster occurs: HS nts -- antsami
thistle.
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CHAPTER II
MORPHOPHONEMICS
2.0. In discussing the morphophonemics of Ainu, the term base form
will refer to the phonemic shape of the morpheme not affected by
contact conditions, and the term alternant form will refer to the
phonemic shape of the morpheme under contact conditions.
Morphophonemic variations— i.e., automatic change of the
phonemic shape of all morphemes of a certain type (whether compulsory
or optional)--will be discussed here. Selective morpheme alternations-
i.e., change of the phonemic shape of some morphemes of a certain type
to the exclusion of others— does not occur in Ainu. Isolated morpheme
alternation— i.e., alternation which affects only one or a small
number of individual morphemes— will be mentioned and exemplified here,
but a full list of variants is reserved for the pertinent portions of
the morphology.
Of the contact conditions which determine morphophonemic
variation and morpheme alternation only sandhi, i.e., adjacency is
pertinent in Ainu. Furthermore, a combination of assimilation and
truncation, truncation, a combination of elision and truncation, a
linking semivowel, and reduplication occur.
2.0.1. The Phonemic shape of morphemes in isolation.— A single
vocalic nucleus, that is, a single vowel or a single diphthong or
20
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! 21
I triphthong, is the phonemic minimum of an Ainu morpheme: e yes, ay
I
' arrow, yay reflexive prefix.
Ainu morphemes may also contain an initial and/or final single
consonantal margin: ni wood, at rope, pet river.
Ainu morphemes may have more than one vocalic nucleus. The
nuclei may occur without consonantal margins: ayay baby.
In addition, the vocalic nuclei of a morpheme may be separated
, by a medial geminate consonant or by certain medial homorganic or
non-homorganic clusters : nonno flower, pisne seashore, enka
above.
The phonemic shape of isolated morphemes may be expressed in
the following formula: ±(±C,V), ±|.±C,V), ±C, V, ±C, where V
indicates any vocalic nucleus possible in the given position, C for
any consonantal margin, and the sign ± for the optional occurrence
of the following symbol or parenthetical group of symbols.
2.0.2. The phonemic shape of morphemes and morpheme
boundaries.— Phonemic and morphemic segmentation (i.e., contours and
morphemes) do not coincide in Ainu. The phoneme groupings contained
within contours are somewhat less restricted than those contained
within morphemes. Thus phoneme groupings of a type found within a
contour but not within a morpheme of necessity belong to two morphemes
and hence are phonological signals of morpheme boundary. These
include: vowel clusters ae, ai; consonant clusters (including
consonant and semivowel) pw, ky, mn, nw, nm, ns. However, the phoneme
groupings possible within a morpheme may also occur at morpheme
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22
boundaries.
2.1. Phonemic Variability of Morphemes with Regard to Sandhi
This involves three cases of morphophonemic variation in Ainu
and no cases of morpheme alternation. However, of the various types
of sandhi, only final unilateral sandhi, i.e., only the last phoneme
of the first of two contact morphemes affected, is of importance in
Ainu.
My Hi informant considers the alternant forms resulting from
dissimilation and from the optional cases of assimilation and
truncation to be indicative of an older form of speech.
2.1.1. Morphophonemic variations in final sandhi.— All
morphemes which have relevant finals in contact within the same con
tour may be affected. This results in the following types of changes:
assimilation, dissimilation, and elision. Furthermore, the case of
assimilation may result in a geminate consonant or a homorganic
cluster.
2.1.2. Assimilation.— The following case of assimilation is
optional in all three dialects. In the Hi dialect the base form is
the preferred variant and usually occurs. For the Ho and HS dialects,
preference could not be determined, but the base form is somewhat more
prevalent.
-n>-m before m- and p-: tan this -- tam matkaci this girl,
tam-pe this thing.
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23
2.1.5. Assimilation and truncation.— In the HS dialect the
following five cases are mandatory; they are optional in the Hi and
Ho dialects.
Case 1. -ra>-t before t-: oara completely — oat^tuye
he cut completely.
Case 2. -ro>-t before t- : oro very — ot'^teeta very
ancient times.
Case 3. -ro>-n before n-: ku koro my (lit.: I had) —
ku^kon^nispa my master.
Case 4. -ru>-n before n-: kuru man — an^kun^ne it is a
man (lit.: isTmanTcopula).
Case 5. -ri>-n before n-: asiri new — asin-no newly.
The next two cases are mandatory in the Hi dialect; their
occurrence has not been determined as yet for the other two dialects :
Case 6. hopuni got up (s.) + -pa plural suffix hopum-pa
got up (p.).
Case 7. This involves a change in the manner of, articulation:
amucici scratched (s.) + -pa plural suffix amucit-pa 'scratched (p.).
2.1.4. Dissimilation.— Two cases of dissimilation occur. The
qualifications affecting assimilation are also pertinent here.
Morphemes with final -ra have within the same contour sandhi variants
dissimilated to final -n before morphemes with initial consonant
identical to their non-contact final, while morphemes with final -ro
dissimilate to -t before c-: oara thoroughly — oari^ray-ke he
killed thoroughly; ku^koro my (lit.: I^had) — ktTkotTcise my house.
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24
i 2.1.5. Elision.--The following cases of elision occur:
Case 1. When -V meets V- or is contour final (-V is any
■ syllabic vowel or semivowel while V- is any syllabic vowel), -V
may be optionally elided— mosiri world— mosir^epitta [the] whole
world. One instance of elision is mandatory in the Hi dialect but
never occurs in the Ho dialect; in the HS material it occurred only
once: ku ^>k before V- — k'^ek I came.
Case 2. -ra, -ro, -ri final verbs which form the causative
and/or transitive by the addition of e elide final -V before e:
koro possessed + e>kor-e gave.
2.1.6. Elision and truncation.— -n final verbs which form
the plural by the addition of -pa, plural suffix, elide -n to -p;
in addition, -pa>-p — ahun entered (s.) + -pa>ahu-p entered (p.).
2.2. Truncation
Three mandatory cases of truncation occur— case 1 and case 2
involve suffixes while case 3 involves verbs:
Case 1. pe article, thing >-p after V — poro-p large
thing. The only exception is kiTkoro-pe my thing(s) (lit.:
I had-thingÇs)).
Case 2. niw person>-iw after n; after V niw>-n --
wan-iw ten persons, tu-n two persons.
Case 3a. -a, -i, -u final verbs which form the plural by
the addition of -pa, plural suffix, drop their final -V when -pa
is added -- hosipi returned (s.) + -pa>hosip-pa returned (p.).
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25
Case 3b. Certain -e final verbs which form the plural with
-pa also drop final -V when -pa is added -- tuye cut (s.) +
-pa>tuy-pa cut (p.).
A case of optional initial truncation occurs:
Case 4. otutanu “ tutanu next, second.
2.5. Linking Semivowel
One case of a linking semivowel occurs: when morpheme u is
added to V-initial words, a linking or intrusive w sometimes •
occurs: u mutuality prefix + e-mina laughed at u-we-mina they
laughed at each other.
2.4. Reduplication
Two cases of reduplication occur--full and partial.
Case 1. This involves full reduplication of'the verb theme:
ek^ek he kept on coming.
Case 2. This involves the addition of h before the
reduplicated final syllabic vowel of certain noun themes which
terminate in an open syllable: pe water — pehe drop of water;
hawe, hawehe voice.
2.5. Morpheme Alternation
The following cases of morpheme alternation occur :
Case la. Full suppletion occurs in the plural form of certain
verbs — arapa (s.. Hi), oman (s.. Ho, HS), paye (p.) went.
Case lb. Partial suppletion may occur in the plural form of
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26
; certain verbs — uk (s.), uyna (p.) took.
I
Case 2. ku ^ has the following allomorph: en --
: en-kasuy he saved me (lit.: me-he-saved).
Case 3. un, i are two forms of us— un-pa, i-pa, he
found us (lit.: us-he-found).
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CHAPTER III
MORPHOLOGY
3.0. The distribution frame of Ainu morphology is the analytic word
(as opposed to the informant word). It was not possible to define the
word by the fixed order test— that is, determining whether or not any
pair of adjacent morphemes or morpheme clusters within an informant
word can be inverted— due to the fact that the Ainu language does not
contain consistently ordered strings of morphemes or morpheme clusters,
Furthermore, canonical form also is not a defining criterion.
Ainu morphemes, however, may be divided into two types:
thematic and paradigmatic. Thematic morphemes are words and are
defined by the fact that they are units which 1) are either indepen
dent (verbs, copula, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, numerals, and adnouns),
2) unilaterally dependent on an entire clause (particles), or 3)
bilaterally dependent on two clauses (conjunctions).
In addition, a few thematic morphemes may be termed morphemic
components. These are units which are separable in form but do not
have an identifiable meaning portion or portions.
Conversely, paradigmatic morphemes are non-words and are
defined by the fact that they are units which are in a unilateral
dependence relation with another unit. They may be subdivided into
the classes of prepositions and postpositions.
27
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28
In unilateral dependence, X requires Y but not vice versa.
In bilateral dependence, X requires Y and Z but not vice versa.
A hyphen (-) between two units indicates the unilateral dependence
of one upon the other.
The paradigmatic morpheme classes are of restricted membership,
and an exhaustive listing of their individual members is thus possible.
For the thematic morphemes, a complete listing is possible for the
following: copula, particles, conjunctions, and certain subclasses of
pronouns. For the remaining classes of thematic morphemes exhaustive
ness means mere exemplification, without complete listing, of indi
vidual members.
Although I have attempted an exhaustive listing of the member
ship of the restricted classes, it is possible that some class members
may be missing. If this is the case, I will include them in a future
definitive treatment of Ainu grammar.
The noun may, and very often does, occur without a dependent
paradigmatic morpheme. The verb, however, seldom occurs without a
dependent non-word, although it may so occur. In addition, noun
phrases and verb phrases often function as nouns and verbs, respec
tively. Thus, of necessity, certain syntactic units are discussed in
the morphology; because of this and the fact that a syntactic analysis
will not be presented, I will briefly outline what are tentatively
considered to be some of the salient aspects of Ainu syntax.
The grammatical system of Ainu consists of the following
analytic units which do not occur in an orderly progression but rather
fuse one into the other: morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence.
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29
paragraph, discourse. Each unit at a higher level is composed of lower
level units defined by external function and internal structure; only
the morpheme is allowed as a primitive term. In a full grammatical
treatment, all the units up to and including the sentence would be
included in the description. Above the sentence we enter the realm
of stylistics.
Putative phrase types in Ainu are: verb phrases, copula
phrases, adverb phrases, noun phrases, pronoun phrases, numeral
phrases, and adnoun phrases, with various subclasses of each.
The clause functions that are tentatively considered pertinent
to Ainu are: a subject function, a predicate function, a direct
object function, an indirect object function, and a complement
function. An unmarked noun may function within the clause as a subject
or object; the verb or verb phrase usually comes at the end of the
clause; however, unlike the other clause functions, the predicate
function does not depend on any other clause member for its function,
that is, the predicate function is not in a unilateral dependence
relation of either occurrence or function on any other unit within
the clause. Therefore, if the clause-final verb phrase is, through
dependence relations, considered the most important part of the
analytic sentence, the grammatical emphasis in Ainu may be tentatively
labelled cumulative with the prior elements adding various pieces of
information to the main verb.
My use of dependence relations in the definition of the word
has made it advantageous to consider the terms postposition and suffix
equivalent; the same is true for the terms preposition and prefix.
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30 I
However, the concepts which the terms postposition and suffix, for
I example, imply are often considered quite distinct. Nevertheless, with
: regard to Ainu grammatical structure, I believe that I am justified
: in the approach which I have used and that those semantic differences
which occur with respect to the previously named terms are clearly
delineated.
In the following outline, I have tried to use as many examples
similar to John Batchelor's as possible for the benefit of the reader
who may wish to compare my treatment of the morphology with his.
However, due tr corpus restrictions and our different approaches, this
has not always been feasible.
3.1. Part I: Thematic Morphemes
3.1.1. The verb.— Internally, the verb is defined by the
paradigmatic morphemes that depend on it; externally, by its function
as a predicate in clauses. The unmodified verb theme indicates past
time and third person singular or plural. At times, however, the
context and/or words with a present meaning occurring with the verb
require that the verb be translated as a present form.
Verb auxiliaries. The auxiliaries which are in a unilateral
dependence relation upon the verb and which serve to indicate time
and mode include the following:
a. koroan, koran indicates that an action is in prog
ress -- ek-koran he is coming.
b. siri, sirine (Hi, HS) indicates that an action is in
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31
progress — ek-sirine he is coining.
c. kusune indicates future time — ek-kusune he will
come.
d. nankoro indicates future probability — ek-nankoro
he will probably come.
e. nisa indicates a finished past action — ek-nisa
he came.
f. okere (Hi) indicates a finished past action --
ek-okere he came.
g. awa indicates an insistive past — ek-awa he came,
you know!
h. kusunea (Hi) indicates that one has to or ought to do
something -- ek-kusunea he ought to come.
The following are independent verbs which usually function as
auxiliaries :
a. aeramusinne is a verb which means was satisfied and
which indicates past time and contentment with verbs
of eating and drinking — ipe aeramusinne I have
eaten (and am content).
b. rusuy is a verb which means wished and which indicates
desire when following other verbs — ek rusuy he
wanted to come.
In addition, verb reduplication may occur to indicate
frequency — ek ek he kept on coming.
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32
The imperative. The imperative is formed by adding yan to the
verb theme — apkas-yan walk! (s. and pi.).
The passive. Individual and/or stylistic reasons, rather than
structural, seem to determine the use of the passive. It is formed
by the morpheme a with allomorphs a- -an. -a occurs with the
first and second persons, singular and plural, while -an occurs
elsewhere:
a- + en me^+ verb — first person, singular, passive,
personal pronoun + verb + -an -- second person, singular,
passive.
a- + verb — third person, singular, passive,
a- + un us^+ verb — first person, plural, passive,
personal pronoun + verb + -an — second person, plural,
passive.
a- + verb — third person, plural, passive.
An example of a verb inflected in the passive is the
following:
a-en-nu I was heard,
e nu-an you (s.) were heard.
a-nu he was heard,
a-un-nu we were heard,
eci nu-an you (pi.) were heard,
a-nu they were heard.
Plural verbs. Some verbs occur with a plural form when the
subject and/or object of the verb is plural (transitive verbs) and
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33
i some when the subject only is plural (intransitive verbs); the plural
; form may be entirely different than the singular, or it may be formed
; by the addition of -pa -p.
There is ho rule whereby one can determine whether or not a
verb will have a plural form or how this plural form will be con
structed.
The following are the verbs in my corpus with a distinct
plural fornn:
Singular
a
ahun
akonere
amucici
ani
anu
arapa, arupa (Hi)
as
asinke
aste
as ip
ek
eok
heasi
hekatu
sat
entered
smashed
scratched
carried a big thing
left a single (many)
thing (s) on one side
went
came down
extracted germs
set up
came out
came
struck against
began
was born
Plural
rok
ahu-p
akonere-pa
amucit-pa
am-pa.
amke
paye
as-pa
asinke-pa
roski
asip-pa
ariki, araki
eokok
heas-pa
hekat-pa
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34
Singular
Plural
hekomu returned hekom-pa
hepirasa blossomed hepiras-pa
hetuku came forth hetuk-pa
hopuni got up hopum-pa
hosipi returned hosip-pa
hotuye yelled hotuy-pa
hoyupu ran hoyup-pa
koro possessed koro-pa
oman (Ho, HS) went paye
ray-ke killed ronnu
ran descended ra-p
resu reared res-pa
san descended sa-p
suwe cooked suke-pa
tuye cut tuy-pa
uk took uyna (Hi)
yan ascended ya-p
y as a split yas-pa
Causative and transitive forms. Verbs can be grouped into
certain subclasses according to the way in which they form the
causative and/or transitive. Mere inspection cannot determine into
which subclass a verb will fall.
Subclass 1. ka suffix verbs include:
a. isam there is not, died; isam-ka made to be nothing.
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35
I
I annihilated, did away with.
I
! b. iwnin suffered pain; iwnin-ka punished someone
(without drawing blood).
c. kotuk touched ; kotuk-ka stuck on.
d. mom floated; mom-ka sent adrift.
e. us went out (like fire); us-ka made to go out,
extinguished.
f. uhuy burned ; uhuy-ka made to burn.
Subclass 2. ke suffix verbs include:
g. ahun entered; ahun-ke caused to enter, sent in.
put in.
h. ray died; ray-ke killed.
i. ran came down; ran-ke let down.
j. san descended; san-ke caused to descend,
k. sat was dry; sat-ke dried it.
1. yan ascended; yan-ke caused to ascend; took up, out.
Subclass 3. te suffix verbs include:
a. as stood, rained; as-te set up, caused to rain.
b. at shone ; at-te caused to shine.
c. cis cried; cis-te caused to cry.
d. esirikopas leaned against; esirikopas-te caused to
lean against, set against.
e. oman (Ho, HS) went; oman-te made to go, sent away.
f. rikin climbed; rikin-te made to climb.
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I 36
I Subclass 4. re suffix verbs— group a occurring with re
I
: suffix only and group b occurring with one of the previous suffixes
and re. These include:
Group a :
1. e I ate; e-re - , caused to eat, fed,
ipe ipe-re
2. arapa went; arapa-re sent.
3. hetuku was promoted; hetuku-re caused to be pro
moted.
4. iku drank ; iku-re caused to drink.
5. ki did; ki-re caused to do.
6. oma went inside; oma-re put inside.
7. ru melted; ru-re melted something.
8. sikkasima left aside; sikkasima-re caused to leave
aside.
9. ta dug, drew water; ta-re caused or let someone
dig or draw water.
Group b:
1. ahun-ke sent in; ahun-ke-re caused to be sent in.
2. as-te set up; as-te-re made someone wait.
3. san-ke sent down; san-ke-re caused to send out,
let out.
Subclass S. Some verbs ending in -ra, -ro, -ri replace
final vowel with e. These include:
a. eysokoro made true; eysokor-e caused to make true.
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37
b. haciri fell down; hacir-e threw down, made to fall
down.
c. kara made, did; kar-e caused to make, do.
d. koro possessed; kor-e gave.
e. mokoro slept; mokor-e put to sleep.
f. nukara saw; nukar-e shown.
Subclass 6. Some verbs with prefix e. These include:
a. kira ran; e-kira ran away with.
b. mik barked; e-mik barked at.
c. mina laughed; e-mina laughed at.
5.Id.6. Verb derivation. Verbs may be derived fro vords of
other classes in the following ways:
1. by prefixing e to certain adnouns;
hapuru soft; e-hapuru was unable to endure,
niste hard; e-niste was able to endure.
2. by suffixing ka to certain nouns, adnouns, and adverbs :
hure red; hure-ka dyed red.
moyre slow; moyre-ka slackened speed,
nam cold; man-ka made cold,
nisap quick; nisap-ka quickened.
3. cak without, lacking may be added to certain nouns:
kat heart, mind; kat-cak was weak, timid.
There is no rule by which these words of other classes can be
determined, and consequently, they are ascertained only through
informant and text-based elicitation.
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38
The Copula
3.1.2. The Ainu copula may be divided into two subclasses—
1. an and 2. ne, both of which often indicate present time. They
are not considered verb subclasses because their internal structure
differs from that of the verb. In my corpus an occurs much more
frequently than ne.
The semantic range and different copula functions of an and
ne are illustrated by the following examples:
1. an may be used:
a. in questions with he a question particle— ek ruwe
he an has he come? (lit, came insistive-particle ,
question-particle copula).
b. in a locative sense— teta an he is here (lit, here
copula).
c. with kane (while)...ing— tekehe-otta sumi ani-kane
an he is holding rocks in his hand (lit, hands-in
rocks held-...ing copula).
d. as the verb "to be"— tanto wen sikus an today the
weather is bad (lit, today bad weather copula), kuani
katuhu an I am in this disguise (lit. I form copula).
2. ne may be used:
a. in an existential sense— an kuru ne a man is (there)
(lit, copula man copula).
b. in. a qualitative sense— kuani aynu ku ne I am an Ainu
(lit. I Ainu I copula).
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39
c. in idioms without a verb— hempara ne-yakka at any
time, always (lit, when copula-although).
d. in idioms with a verb— sine-n ne ma to swim by one's
self (lit, one-person-postposition copula swam).
e. as the verb "to be"— tan ku koro-pe ne na this is
my thing (lit, this I had-thing copula conclusive-
particle).
The Adverb
3.1.3. The postpositions -no and -tara serve as internal
defining criteria of certain adverbs, while clause complement function
and function in adverb phrases serve as the external defining criteria
of all adverbs.
Certain adverbs may be formed by:
1. The postposition -no plus certain adnouns:
asiri new, asin-no newly.
hosiki previous, hosiki-no previously.
2. the postposition -tara plus certain adnouns:
moyre slow, moyre-tara slowly.
ratci gentle ratci-tara gently.
The adverbs formed in these ways can only be ascertained
through informant and text-based elicitation.
Some common postposition-free adverbs include: hanke near;
hempara when; ikusta beyond; ine where ; kesto daily; na, naa
more; nep-kusu why; nitan fast; numan yesterday; pakno
sufficient ; patek only; ramma always ; rikta above; samata
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40
beside; some not; taanta here; tane now; tanto today ; teeta
long ago; toanta there.
The Noun
3.1.4. The noun is defined internally by the paradigmatic
morphemes unilaterally dependent on it and externally by the clause
functions of subject and object and by function in noun phrases.
3.1.4.1. Noun formation. Nouns may be formed by:
1. Compounding :
a. A noun + a noun— to female breast + pe liquid >
tope milk.
b. A verb + a noun— uhuy burned + nupuri mountain >
uhuynupuri volcano.
2. A verb + -pe thing--e ate + -pe > e-p food;
a-ye was said + -pe > a-ye-p the thing said.
3. A verb + -i— yaynu was ill + -i > yaynu-i illness.
4. An adnoun + -pe— poro large + -pe > poro-p large thing.
3.1.4.2. Noun plurality. Plurality is ordinarily indicated
by context; occasionally, however, utara, utari (persons, people) is
used.
kuru man or men, kuru utara men.
Two nouns with their own optionally used plural form also
occur :
cep fish (s. and pi.), cep-nu fish (pi.)
nis cloud, clouds, nis-u clouds.
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41
3.1.4.3. Gender. pinne male (non-human), okkay, okkayyo
male (human), and matne female may be used, but seldom are, to
specify gender:
seta pinne male dog
seta matne bitch
kamuy okkay male god.
3.1.4.4. Diminutives. Diminutives may be formed by the
postposition -po.
seta dog, seta-po puppy
cikap bird, cikap-po small bird.
The Pronoun
3.1.5. Externally, the clause functions of subject, object,
and complement, as well as function in pronoun phrases, define the
pronoun. Furthermore, the pronoun may be divided into the following
subclasses:
3.1.5.1. Personal pronouns.
First person singular: kuani, ku (standard), cokay
(informal), kani (slang) I; en me (en is a bound allomorph
occurring when kuani is an object).
Second person singular: e, eani (standard), sinuraa
(expresses contempt) you.
Third person singular: tan kuru (lit, this person, (HS)
this man), tan aynu (lit, this person, this man) he/him, she/her.
First person plural : ci, ci utara (lit, we people), ci
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42
okay (lit, we are), (HS) ci okay utara/utari (lit, we are people),
as (only after intransitive verbs) we; un, i (bound allomorphs,
occurring when ci is an object) us.
Second person plural: eci, eci okay (lit, you are), eci
utara (lit, you people), eci okay utara (lit, you are friends,
polite), (HS) an utari (lit, are friends, polite)— you.
Third person plural: tan utara (lit, these people), toan
utara (lit, those people), tan okay utara (lit, these are persons),
ney utara (lit, those people (close by)), to okay utara (lit.
there are people (far away)), ney okay utara (those are persons,
polite)--they/them.
5.1.5.2. Impersonal pronouns.
tam-pe (lit, this thing); tan okay-pe (lit, these are
things); toan okay-pe (lit, those are things); ney okay-pe (those
are things (close by)); to okay-pe (there are things (far away))—
it, that is, this, that thing/these, those things.
3.1.5.3. Possessives. Possessives are formed by adding
koro had, possessed, to the personal pronouns and to a in the case
of your (s. and pl.).
Examples are: ku koro my; e-koro, a-koro your (s.); toan
kuru koro his/her; ci koro our; eci koro, a-koro your (pl.);
toan okay utara koro their (far away); tam-pe koro its. If there
is no ambiguity, however, the personal pronoun by itself can indicate
the possessive.
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43
5.1.5.4. Relatives. The relatives include the following
words : sekore who, that, which; ani that.
5.1.5.5. Interrogatives. The interrogatives are: hemanta
what; hempara when; hunna who; hunnak where; inam-pe which
thing; inan which ; ine where ; makanak (Hi) how; nekon, nekona
(Ho, HS) how; nen, nenta who; nep what; nep-kusu why (lit.
because what).
5.1.5.6. Indefinites. The indefinites include: moyo few;
nenka someone, somebody, no one; nep, nepka something; nen ne-yakka
(lit, who is-if), nen ne kuru ka (lit, who copula man even) anyone,
anybody, everyone, everybody, whosoever; nen nen ne-yakka (lit, who
who copula-if), nep ne-yakka (lit, something copula-if), nep nep
ne-yakka (lit, something something copula-if) anything, whatever,
whichever; sine-n one (person); usinna each.
3.1.5.7. Reflexives. The reflexives are: yay-kata, yay-kota
one's self; sine-n ne po (by) myself (lit, one-person copula child);
sine-n ne (by) itself (lit, one-person copula); eani(e) yay-kota
(by) yourself (lit, you (you) one's self); ney kuru yay-kota him;/
herself (lit, that person self).
3.1.5.8. Demonstrative. The demonstratives, include : tan,
taan this these; toan, taan that, those; tan okay this, these
(lit, this exists (close by)); tan-pe this, that, these, those (lit.
this, that thing (close by)); toan-ta okay that, those (lit, that-
there exists (at a distance)); toan-pe this, that, these, those (lit.
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44
this, that thing (at a distance)).
The Numeral
3.1.6. Of all areas of the Ainu language, the one with the
earliest and most complete replacement by Japanese is the numeral
V
system. The reasons for this have no place in a synchronic sketch,
but it does explain the gaps which exist. The counters, one of which
usually occurs with the numeral theme, are: pe article, thing; niw
person ; pis thing, person; ikinne ordinal counter; and tunku
hundreds and thousand counter.
The counters are tentatively considered mutually exclusive
since no example which would modify this statement was collected.
They serve as the internal defining criteria of the numerals, while
clause complement function and function in numeral phrases serve as
the external defining criteria.
The following are all the data on numerals that I collected:
1 sine-
2 tu-
3 re-
4 ine-
5 asikne-; asik (five things)
6 iwan
7 arawan- (Hi), aruwan- (Ho, HS), ariwan- (HS)
8 tupesan-; tupes (eight things)
9 sinepesan-; sinepe (nine things)
10 wan-
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45
11 sine ikasima wan- (lit, one plus ten)
12-19 follow the same pattern as 11
20 hotne-, hot (twenty things)
21 sine hot, sine ikasima hot (lit, one plus twenty)
22-29 follow the same pattern as 21.
My informants could not supply any native Ainu words for the
odd-digited multiples of ten such as 30, 50, 70 and 90, not because
they forgot them but because, to their knowledge at least, they never
existed. In fact, above ten the informants seldom used the Ainu
number morphemes. Odd-digited multiples of ten, however, could be
formed by phrases such as wan e tu hot ten from o forty (things)
to mean 30 (things).
40 tu hot (things), tu hotne-n (persons)
60 re hot (things), re hotne-n (persons)
80 ine hot (things), ine hotne-n (persons)
100 sine atuyta (Hi) (things), asikne hot (Ho) (things),
asikne hotne-n (persons)
200 tu atuyta (Hi) (things), tu-tunku (Ho)
300 re-tunku (Ho)
400 ine-tunku (Ho)
500 asikne-tunku (Ho)
600 iwan-tunku (Ho)
700 aruwan-tunku (Ho)
800 tupesan-tunku (Ho)
900 sinepesan-tunku (Ho)
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46
1,000 hot-tunku (Ho) (things)
I h e tu (lit, from two)
2 h e re (lit, from three)
ikinne is the ordinal counter; (o)tutanu next may also be
used with the-numbers one and two.
first sine-ikinne, sine (o)tutanu
second tu-ikinnè, tu (o)tutanu
third re-ikinne, iye e re-ikinnè (lit, put-together
from third)
fourth ine-ikinne, iye e ine-ikinne (lit, put-together
from fourth)
fifth-tenth follow the same pattern as third and fourth.
suy, suyne again is the counter for times, but suyne only
occurs with (o)ara one of two.
once (o)ara suy/suyne (lit, one again), asuy
twice tu suy (lit, two again)
three times re suy (lit, three again)
four times-ten times follows the same pattern as twice and
three times.
Both is expressed by uren:
uren cikiri both legs.
One of a pair or one side of something is expressed by
(o)ara.
(o)ara siki one eye (of two).
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47
One-by-one, two-by-two, etc., are expressed by reduplication
or by ranke.
sine-n sine
sine-n ranke
sine-p sine-p
sine-p ranke
■ }
Î
tu
tu
-n tu-n ^
-n ranke J
tu-p tu-p ^
tu-p ranke /
singly
one-by-one (things)
singly
two-by-two (persons)
by twos
two-by-two (things)
by twos
ko is the counter for days, except for the first day where
to day is used:
one day sine to
two days tut-ko
three days rere-ko
The Adnoun
3.1.7. The morphemes us and sak postposed to nouns serve
as internal defining criteria of certain adnouns, while clause
complement function and function in adnoun phrases serve as the
external defining criteria of all adnouns.
Certain adnouns are formed by:
1. us became + certain nouns:
kem blood + us, kem us bloody (lit, blood became)
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48
2. when sak non-existent is added to certain nouns
adnouns with a negative connotation are formed :
ramu mind + sak, ramu sak foolish flit, mind
non-existent1
The adnouns formed in this manner are ascertained only through
informant and text-based elicitation.
Some common adnouns are:
asiri new; askanne clean; atomte beautiful, neat;
hapuru soft ; husko old; hutne (HS) narrow; icakkere dirty ;
ipokasi ugly; katcak weak; kera sweet ; mo quiet, gentle; moyre
slow; nam cold; nucak happy; nupetne joyful; nokan small,
little; pirika good, pretty; pon little, small; poro large;
ram low; ratci quiet, gentle; ri high; ru broad ; sep broad,
wide; tanne long; tumasnu strong ; tunas quick; tuyma far;
wen bad.
3.1.7.1. Plurality. A plural connotation to adnouns is
imparted by the postposition -pa.
pirika good, pirika-pa all are good
pon small, pon-pa all are small
3.1.7.2. Comparative and superlative. The comparative and
superlative are formed with na more and iyotta most :
pirika good, na pirika better, iyotta pirika best.
Than comparatives may be formed in the following ways :
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49
j 1. with akkari than :
e akkari ku nitan ruwe ne I am faster than you (lit, you
than I swift insistive-particle copula).
I '
2. with akkari and easirika certainly :
ya akkari rep-anak ne easirika poro ruwe ne the sea is
greater than the land (lit, land than sea-noun-postposition-indicating-
subject copula certainly larger insistive-particle copula).
3. with akkari and eytasa more:
toan kotan akkari tan kotan-anak ne eytasa hanke an kotan
ne ruwe ne this village is nearer than that village (lit, this
village than that village-noun postposition-indicating-subject copula
more near copula village copula insistive-particle copula).
4. with akkari and maskino too:
umma akkari isepo maskino nitan ruwe ne a horse is faster
than a rabbit (lit, horse than rabbit too swift insistive-particle
copula).
5. with akkari and na more :
en-akkari eani na siwente you are slower than I (lit.
me-than you more slow).
6. with kasuno more:
en-kasuno e ri ruwe ne you are taller than I (lit, me-more
you tall insistive-particle copula).
The Particle
3.1.8. The particle is defined by a unilateral dependence
relation on the whole analytic unit with which it occurs.
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i 50
I
I
The following particles occur in my corpus:
1. a, ya~-question particles in free variation: pirika ya,
pirika a is it good? (lit, good question-particle).
2. he— a question particle preceded by a verb or a verb +
ruwe (insistive particle) and usually followed by the copula an:
nep kusu ariki ruwe he an why have you (pi.) come? (lit, what because
came insistive-particle question-particle copula).
3. ruwe— an insistive particle which often gives an affirma
tive emphasis to what one is saying and is usually followed by the
copula ne: ek rusuy ruwe ne he wanted to come, you know! (lit.
came wished affirmative-particle copula), pirika ne ruwe ne it's
good, you know! (lit, good copula affirmative-particle copula).
4. na— a conclusive particle which indicates that an utterance
is completely finished: tane ku arapa na I'm going now (lit, now I
went conclusive-particle).
5. tapan--a conclusive particle, less forceful than na,
indicating that a statement is finished: ek rusuy tapan he wanted
to come (lit, came wished affirmative-particle).
As the last three particles are not mutually exclusive, their
order of occurrence is: ruwe, tapan, and na--nep kusu henne pon
okkay nep kusu henne pon menoko henne ek ruwe tapan na why aren't
the boys and girls coming? (lit, what because not small male what
because not small female not came insistive-particle conclusive-
particle conclusive-particle.
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I 51
1
The Conjunction
’ 3.1.9. Conjunctions are defined via a bilateral dependence
; relation on the two analytic units with which they may occur. There
i are two subclasses of conjunctions— simple and correlative.
1. The simple conjunctions include:
wa and with verbs; in the absence of any aspect
auxiliary, we may give a present time connotation to the first of the
two verbs with which it occurs — aynu itak nu rusuy wa ek he has
come wishing to hear the Ainu language (lit. Ainu language heard
wished and came).
newa and with nouns — mici ncwa hapo father and mother,
koroka but, however — k-ek koroka ku nukara somoki ^
came, but I didn't see (lit. I-came but I saw not).
ora (Hi), orowa (Ho) then — aynu hekaci pa-koro ora
hekaci nospa when the men found the boys, (then) they followed them
(lit, men boys found-when then boys followed).
ya or_ with questions — ek ya somo ya has he come or
has he not? (lit, came or not question-particle).
2. The correlative conjunctions include:
hemem...hemem both...and — mici hemem hapo hemem ariki
both father and mother came (lit, father both mother both came).
hene...hene either... or — e hene kuani hene nu-nankoro
either you or me will probably hear (lit, you either I or heard
probably-will).
ka...ka both...and with an affirmative statement.
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52
neither...nor with a negative statement— eani ka kani ka ariki both
you and me came (lit, you both I both came); eani ka somo kani ka
somo ipe neither you nor me ate (lit, you neither you nor I nor not
ate).
newa...newa both...and— hekaci newa matkaci newa ipe
rusuy both the boys and the girls wished to eat (lit, boys both girls
and ate wished).
neyakka...neyakka both...and— hapo neyakka mici neyakka
i-nu-koran both mother and father are listening (lit, mother both
father and intensifying-prefix-heard-present-auxiliary).
yakka...yakka whether...or--apkas yakka umma o yakka
k-ek-nankoro whether I walk or ride a horse. I'll probably come
(lit, walked whether horse rode or I-came-probably-will).
Morphemic Components
3.2.0. As stated in the introduction to the morphology (p.27) units
which are separable in form but do not have an identifiable meaning
portion or portions occur in Ainu. Thus, in regard to full identifi
cation of their internal structure, these morphemic components are
indeterminate marginal cases. Their assignment to word classes is,
therefore, based mainly on external function. Throughout this outline
morphemic components are written as one word, but in the following
examples a hyphen (-) separates the parts without implying a
dependence relation of any type.
Examples include :
heka-ci or he-kaci boy; matka-ci or mat-kaci girl ;
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53
! heka-ttar or he-kattar children.
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PART II
3.3. PARADIGMATIC MORPHEMES
The Preposition
3.3.1. Prepositions are defined via a unilateral dependence relation
upon the word which follows them. They may be divided into three
subclasses according to whether they occur with verbs, nouns, or
adnouns. Prepositions that occur with nouns are mutually exclusive
and have semantic rather than morphologic restrictions of occurrence.
Prepositions that occur with verbs, on the other hand, are restricted
both morphologically and semantically . In addition, the verb
prepositions may be divided into subsets on the basis of a formal
distinction--position in regard to the verb theme. Each preposition
is mutually exclusive with any other in its own subset.
Due to the paucity of agglutinated units of any degree that
occurred in both informant and text-based elicitation, it was not
possible to make a definitive statement as to position, even assuming
that all the members of the restricted preposition class have been
discovered. The following grouping, therefore, must be regarded as
tentative and subject to modification in the light of new evidence.
In the discussion that follows, prepositions that have already
been treated in preceding sections will merely be listed and not
exemplified.
54
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^ 55
3.3.1.1. Verb prepositions
Subset 1.
a. e forms transitive verbs from intransitive ones.
b. he occurs with two verbs in my corpus in the sense of
direction— maka opened, he-maka moved one's body backward, pirasa
j
spread, he-pirasa spread out like a flower with the petals inclined
inward.
c. ho occurs with one verb in my corpus in the sense of
direction— ho-pirasa spread out like a flower with its petals in
clined outward.
d. ko forms transitive verbs from intransitive ones.
e. si a reflexive prefix which in my corpus occurs with
the same two verbs as he— si-maka bend one's body to the side,
si-pirasa (a family or flower) spread itself out.
f. si forms transitive verbs from some intransitives.
Subset 2. i an intensifying prefix— nu heard, i-nu
listened, heard well.
Subset 3. e before some transitive verbs indicates the
preceding noun object— aynu cep e-ikka the man stole the fish (lit.
man fish object-prefix-stole).
Subset 4. ko indicates direction ^ or from— kira ran,
ko-kira ran to ; etaye pulled, ko-etaye pulled from.
Subset 5. u a mutuality or togetherness prefix— e ate,
u-e we ate together or let's eat together.
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%
56
Subset 6. a is a passive prefix.
Subset 7. yay is a reflexive or self prefix— tura went
accompanied by, went together with, yay-tura went alone, went by
himself.
3.3.1.2. Noun prepos it ions
a. e indicates direction toward— e-pisne to the seashore.
b. o indicates direction from--o-pisne from the seashore.
c. u indicates mutuality or togetherness— ir(i)wak
sibling(s), u~ir(i)wak we siblings.
3.3.1.3. Adnoun preposition, e derives verbs from certain
adnouns.
The Postposition
3.3.2. Postpositions are defined via a unilateral dependence
relation on the word which they follow. They can be divided into
subclasses according to whether they occur with verbs, adverbs, nouns,
numerals, or adnouns. Furthermore, verbs and noun postpositions may
be divided into various subsets on the basis of the formal distinction
of position in regard to the verb or noun theme.
The restriction which applied to prepositions, that isj a
paucity of examples of agglutinated units of any degree, also applies
to postpositions; therefore, any grouping into subsets is tentative.
Each postposition is mutually exclusive with any other in its own
subset.
The verb and noun postpositions include those which have an
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57
I easily isolatable meaning of their own as well as those which only
■ affect the meaning of the unit on which they are unilaterally
dependent. The adverb, pronoun, numeral, and adnoun postpositions
; are only of the latter type.
In the following discussion, those postpositions previously
treated will only be listed but not exemplified.
3.5.2.1. Verb postpositions
Subset 1. pa is a plural indicator.
Subset 2.
a. e is a transitive verb former.
b. ke is a transitive verb former.
c. re is a transitive/causative verb former.
d. te is a transitive/causative verb former.
Subset 3.
a. nu indicates ability— ek-nu I can come.
b. yara is a reflexive indicator in the sense of let
yourself be..., i-nu-yara let yourself be listened to (lit.
intensifying-preposition-heard-reflexive-postposition).
Subset 4.
a. koroan is a present time indicator.
b. sirine is a present time indicator.
c. kusune is a future indicator.
d. nankoro is a future probability indicator.
e. nisa is a completed past action indicator.
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58
f. okere (Hi) is a completed past action indicator.
g. awa is an insistive past indicator.
h. kusunea (Hi) indicates that one has to or ought to do
something.
Subset 5.
a. ayke— as, ku ye-ayke a-en-nu as I spoke, I was heard
(lit. I spoke-as passive-preposition-me-heard).
b. ciki— if, ku ek-ciki... if I came... (lit. I came-
if).
c. hike— if, ku nu-hike... if I heard... (lit. I
heard-if).
d. itta— when, k-ek-itta ku nu when I came, I heard
(lit. I-came-when I heard).
e. ko— if, when, ku ek soraoko-ko wen ya is it bad if I
don't come? (lit. I came not— if bad question-particle).
kane -- while ...ing, ek-kane ku ipe while coming,
I ate (lit, came-(while)...ing I ate).
koro -- while ...ing ipe-koro ku nu while eating, I
heard (lit, ate-(while)...ing I heard).
koroka — although, ku kik kik-koroka pirika ya
although I keep on hitting is it all right? (lit. I hit hit-although
t
good question-particle).
kuni -- in order to, in order that, for, cas-kuni
can run (the name of a race horse) (lit, ran-in-order-to).
kusu -- because, in order to, tasum-kusu ratci-tara
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59
k-arapa I went quietly because I was sick [lit, am-sick-because
quiet-adverb former I-went).
mosima — except, besides, but, en-mosima except for
me (lit, me-except).
kusiki,. kuski — indicates that someone was or is about
to do something, ek-kuski he is about to come.
ora — in to, Satporo-ora k-ek I came to Sapporo
(lit. Sapporo-to I-came).
orowa, orowano — after, and then, tasum-orowa ray
wa-isam he died after he was sick (lit, is-sick-after, died and-is
not).
pakno — until, ek-pakno ku tere-koran I am waiting
until he comes (lit, came-until 1 waited-present-time-auxiliary).
yak, yakun — i^, arapa-yak pirika it may be good to
go (lit, went-if good).
yakka — even if, although, ney kuru ek-yakka somo ku
nukara although the man came I did not see him (lit, that man came-
although not I saw).
5.3.2.2. Adverb postpositions
a. ka is a verb former.
b. no is an adnoun former.
3.5.2.3. Noun postpositions
Subset 1.
a. ani, ari by means of — makiri-ari aynu ray-ke (or
makiri-ani aynu ray-ke) he killed a man by using a knife (lit, knife-
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60
by-means-of man died-transitive-forming-postposition).
b. ka is a verb formative.
c. nu is a plural marker with cep fish.
d. okari around, instead of — pet-okari ek he came
around the river (lit, river-around he came), en okari ek he came
instead of me (lit, me-instead-of he came).
e. orowa from — en-orowa oman he went from me (lit.
me-from he went).
f. ora in, to — Mopet-ora ku ek I came to Mopet (lit.
Mopet-to I came).
g. orun in, to (Ho, for) — pet-orun in the river,
Satporo-orun k-arapa I went to Sapporo (lit. Sapporo-to I-went),
nupuri-orun hemesu-kusu ku kara I made it for mountain-climbing
(lit, mountain-for climbed-in order I made).
h. otta in, into, to (otta with nu means heard, asked
about, of); toan kuru cise-ott an ya is he in the house (lit, that
man house-in copula question-particle); toan kuru en-otta ek he came
to me (lit, that man me-to came) ; en-otta nu he asked about'me or
ask me (lit, me (-about) (-of) asked).
i. po is a diminutive marker.
j. sak forms adnouns.
k. ta at, in,to — cise-ta okay they were in the house
(lit, house-in dwelled); Satporo-ta ek he came to Sapporo (lit.
Sapporo-to came).
1. tonoke is an endearment suffix — ak-tonoke my dear
younger brother.
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! 61
I
I m. u is a plural marker with nis cloud.
j
n. us forms adnouns.
o. un is a locative indicator -- kim-un located in the
vicinity of the mountain.
p. un towards, to aynu-un ek he came towards the man
(lit, man-towards came).
q. wa, wano from — pis-wa k-ek I came from the beach
(lit, beach-from I came).
Subset 2. anak is a subject indicator — aynu-anak...
as for the man... (lit, man-subject-indicator).
5.5.2.4. Pronoun postpositions
a. anak is a subject indicator — kuani-anak... as for
me... (lit. I-subject-indicator).
b. un is an affirmative indicator — kuani-un it's I
(lit. I-affirmative-indicator).
3.3.2.5. Numeral postpositions
a. ikinne is a counter for ordinals.
b. ko is a counter for days.
c. niw is a counter for human beings.
d. pis is a counter for human beings and things.
e. tunku is a hundreds and thousand counter.
3.5.2.6. Adnoun postpositions
a. ka is a verb formative.
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62
b. no is an adverb formative.
c. pa is a plural marker.
d. pe is a noun formative.
e. tara is an adverb formative.
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CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Now that some of the essential structural details of the
Hokkaido Ainu language have been presented, 1 would like to take this
opportunity to discuss the Ainu in general. 1 do not think that 1 will
be accused of bias when 1 state that, both ethnographically and
linguistically, the Ainu are one of the most important groups in the
world today. Various factors contribute to this view, viz., the
geographical position of the Ainu in regard to other groups in
northern Asia, their ethnological, but not necessarily linguistic ties
to the various Paleo-Siberian groups such as the Chukchee, and the
enigma surrounding the original homeland and possible migration
routes of the Ainu.
A full and detailed knowledge of all aspects of the language
and culture of the Ainu and the Paleo-Siberian peoples would shed
much light on the previous problems, but, with the rapid disintegration
of the native cultures and the present-day political situation
hampering a great deal of ethnographic and archéologie investigation
in Siberia and in the Kurile and Sakhalin Islands, linguistics seems
to offer the best avenue of approach. The fact that so little, 1 am
tempted to say no, sound synchronic linguistic information is easily
available on Ainu is rather surprising. The many any varied factors
which often are a stumbling block to much anthropological linguistic
investigation such as no easy access to informants, tabus against
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64
divulging the secrets of the language, a reticence on the part of
informants, do not exist for Ainu. There are, it is true, few good
speakers of Hokkaido Ainu, but they are easily accessible, outgoing
and friendly, and pleased and honored to give information about their
language. Thus, the conditions under which the language may be
investigated are not such as to deter even the most adamant armchair
linguist.
In the realm of ethnolinguistics, the Ainu have a plethora of
terms for bears which must be studied and analyzed. The vocabulary
in regard to the sea, fishing, and fish, is also quite extensive and
may provide valuable clues in regard to the origin of these people.
The Ainu also have many songs and chants as well as a form of
epic sung, chanted, and spoken called the yukar which has been handed
down for many generations. Some yukar are of short duration--five or
so minutes— while others may last as long as an hour or more. To my
knowledge, these yukar have never been thoroughly analyzed to see
what information they can provide in regard to the older stages of the
language and the migration routes of the Ainu.
In the future, I intend to collect as many yukar as possible
as well as to examine those already published. With the firm data
base which this study will provide, more accurate and detailed state
ments about Ainu structure in general can be made. Furthermore, Ainu
syntax in particular, about which I have said little in this monograph,
can be more fully analyzed. My work thus far leads me to surmise that
Ainu syntax is quite varied. By varied I mean that Ainu syntax does
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65
«not merely consist of simple, declarative, analytic sentences strung
out one after the other but rather that numerous more sophisticated
syntactic devices are employed.
The agglutinative tendency of the language which John Batchelor
considered typical of Hokkaido Ainu appears to be rapidly changing in
the direction of a more isolating type of structure. Whether this
tendency is a result of the surcease of the language and the rapid
disintegration of Ainu culture or is a result of a drift which would
have occurred even in a viable linguistic and social milieu is a
question which cannot, at the present, be answered with any degree of
certainty.
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APPENDIX I
TEXT
The following text is based on the reminiscenses of sukup mat
(brought-up woman) my 84-year-old Horobetsu informant, who worked for
John Batchelor for eight years.
On the first line is (a.) the Ainu text, below that (b.) a
morpheme-by-morpheme breakdown, followed by (c.) a literal translation
into English, and then (d.) a free translation.
1. a. nep ku ye-ko pirika ya
b. nep ku ye ko pirika ya
c. what 1 said if good question particle
d. Is anything 1 say all right?
2. a. Horobetsu kotan-otta sukup
b. Horobetsu kotan otta sukup
c. Horobetsu village in brought up
d. 1 was brought up in Horobetsu village.
3. a. tane taan kotan ku an
b. tane taan kotan ku an
c. now this village 1 copula
d. Now 1 am in this village.
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67
j4. a. ku koro nispa atuy-orowa ciep yanke
' b. ku koro nispa atuy orowa ciep yanke
c. I had master sea from fish hauled
d. My husband hauled up fish from the sea.
5. a. kuani-anak ne toyatap oman wa toyta patek
b. kuani anak ne toyatap
c. I subject postposition copula garden plants
b. oman wa toyta patek
c. went and planted only
d. I went and only planted garden produce.
6. a. kuani-anak ne ku po hapo miki samaketa sukup
b. kuani anak ne ku
c. I subject postposition copula I
b. po hapo miki samaketa sukup
c. child mother father next to brought up
d. As a child I was raised beside my mother and father.
7. a. akihi tu-n kagapo sinne-n opitta ray
b. akihi tu n
c. younger brother two person postposition
b. kagapo sinne n opitta ray
c. elder sister one person postposition all dead
d. Two younger brothers and an elder sister are all dead.
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68
8. a. tane kuani sinne-n ne po
b. tane kuani sinne n ne po
c. now I one person postposition copula child
d. Now I am all alone.
9. a. kuani-anak ku pon ita irara patek
b. kuani anak ku pon ita
c. I subject postposition I little when
b. irara patek
c. naughty only
d. When I was little, I was only naughty.
10. a. miki hemem hapo hemem koro wa a-kopasrota
b. miki hemem hapo hemem koro wa
c. father both mother both had and
b. a kopasrota
c. passive preposition scolded
d. Both my father and mother scolded me.
11. a. tane poro an kusu irara isam
b. tane poro an kusu irara isam
c. now big copula because naughty is not
d. Now, because I am older, I am not naughty.
12. a. kuani anak ne hapo ikasuy monrayke an na
b. kuani anak ne hapo
c. I subject postposition copula mother
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69
b. ikasuy monrayke an na
c. helped work copula conclusive particle
d. I helped my mother with the work.
13. a. toyta wa amam uk wa ipe sito hemem mesi hemem a-kar wa a-e
b. toyta wa amam uk wa ipe
c. planted and garden produce took and ate
b. sito hemem mesi
c. millet cakes both cooked rice (Japanese loan)
b. hemem a kar wa a
c. and passive preposition made and passive preposition
b. e
c. ate
d. I planted garden produce and took it and ate it, and both
millet cakes and cooked rice I made and ate.
14. a. hapo ciep ipe en-kor-e
b. hapo ciep ipe en kor e
c. mother fish ate me gave transitive verb marker
d. My mother gave me fish to eat.
15. a. ku oman wa Batchelor ipe
b. ku oman wa Batchelor ipe
c. I went and Batchelor ate
d. I went and ate at Batchelor’s.
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. 70
16. a. Batchelor-san orota ku monrayke
b. Batchelor sah orota
c. Batchelor Japanese honorific suffix for
b. ku monrayke
c. I worked
d. I worked for Mr. Batchelor.
17. a. a-e-p a-kara ku kar wa ku iperes
b. a e p a
c. passive preposition ate thing passive preposition
b. kara ku kar wa ku iperes
c. made I made and I fed
d. I prepared the food which was served and fed them.
18. a. cikap hemem buta hemem niwatori hemem ku kar wa ku ante
ne ampe opitta-no makiri-ari tuye wa ipe
b. cikap hemem buta hemem
c. bird both pork (Japanese loan) and
b. niwatori hemem ku kar wa
c. chicken (Japanese loan) and I made and
b. ku ante ne am pe opitta no
c. I placed those copula thing all adverb post
position
b. makiri ari tuye wa ipe
c. knife by means of cut and ate
d. I prepared bird and pork and chicken, and I set all those
things down, and they cut them with a knife and ate.
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71
19. a. hure sisam kosoymo patek ipe
b. hure sisam kosoymo patek ipe
c. red alien potato only ' ate
d. The foreigners would only eat potatoes.
20. a. Batchelor-orowa Bryant-otta ku oman
b. Batchelor orowa Bryant otta ku oman
c. Batchelor from Bryant to I went
d. I went from Batchelor to Bryant's (place).
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APPENDIX II
KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY
The kinship terminology of the Ainu is perhaps an area which
has received less competent attention than even the linguistic. I
was able to collect the kinship terms of one dialect--the Horobetsu--
and I present these not only as an increment to our linguistic and
ethnographic knowledge of the Ainu but also in the hope that they may
spur further investigation and comparison since, next to the numerical
system, the area of kinship terminology is, in my belief, the most
rapidly disintegrating part of the Ainu conceptual realm.
Hokkaido Ainu kinship terms: Horobetsu dialect. The
transcription is phonemic and the same as the rest of the grammar,
ekasi — grandfather, great grandfather, male ancestor
huci — grandmother, great grandmother, female ancestor
onaha^ -- father in reference
2
miki — father in address
This term is an example of a morphophonemic change which
involves the addition of h before the reduplicated final syllabic
vowel of a noun theme which terminates in an open syllable. As the
expected base form was not volunteered, it is not listed.
2
In the Hi and HS dialects, father is mici.
72
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73
kokow — son-in-law
kosmat — daughter-in-law
utarihi^ — sibling in address
yupihi^ — elder brother in address
aki, akihi — younger brother in address
kagapo — elder sister in address
mataki -- younger sister, female sibling in address
po, poho — son in address when a child
given name — son in address when an adult
raatne-po -- daughter in address when a child
given name -- daughter in address when an adult
ku koro nispa — husband in address and reference
taan kur -- husband in reference
macihi^ — wife in reference
ku koro menoko — wife in reference
given name of woman -- wife in address
unuhu^ — mother in reference
hapo — mother in address and reference
aca-po -- uncle, paternal and maternal; father’s sister’s husband,
mother’s sister’s husband
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74
unarpe — aunt, paternal and maternal; father's brother's wife,
mother's brother's wife
3
siwto aca-po — younger father-in-law
3
siwto ekasi — older father-in-law
3
siwto unarpe — younger mother-in-law
3
siwto huci — older mother-in-law
usata ir(i)wak — parallel cousin
onaha?-epeka ir(i)wak ne utar — patrilateral cross-cousin
onaha^ epeka apanu utar — patrilateral cross-cousin
unuhu^ epeka ir(i)wak ne utar — matrilateral cross-cousin
unuhu^ epeka apanu utar — matrilateral cross-cousin
karaku — nephew; that is, brother and/or sister's son
mat karaku — niece; that is, brother and/or sister's daughter
ir(i)wak — sibling (male or female); male cousin or nephew, in
reference
mit po — grandchild of either sex
san mit po — great grandchild of either sex
3
This is a Japanese word for father-in-law.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Batchelor., John. 1905. An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary.
Tokyo, Japan, Methodist Publishing House. 11 pp. and 525 pp.
and 159 pp., 2nd. edition.
Garvin, Paul L. 1962. "Ponapean Morphophonemics." Phonetica,
International Journal of Phonetic Research. 8.115-27.
Garvin, Paul L. 1964. On Linguistic Method. The Hague, Netherlands,
Mouton and Co. 158 pp.
75
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Asset Metadata

Creator Simeon, George John (author)

Core Title The phonemics and morphology of Hokkaido Ainu

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Linguistics

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag language, linguistics,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-195589

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