Ainu language

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Not to be confused with the Aini language.
Ainu
アイヌ イタク Aynu itak 
Pronunciation: /ainu itak/
Spoken in: Japan, Russia 
Region: Hokkaidō, formerly Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, the tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and Tōhoku in Honshū
Total speakers: near-extinct, 15 speakers in Japan were known in 1991[1]
Language family: language isolate
 Ainu
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: ain[2]
ISO 639-3: ain
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Ainu language (Ainu: アイヌ イタク, aynu itak; Japanese: アイヌ語 ainu-go) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō. It was once also spoken in the Kuril Islands and the southern half of Sakhalin.

Contents

[edit] Relation to other languages

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

Ainu is often considered a language isolate, that is, a language that has not been shown to have a particularly close relation to any other language or group of languages.

It is sometimes grouped with the Paleosiberian languages, but this is merely a cover term for several language families believed to have been present in Siberia prior to the arrival of Turkic and Tungusic speakers, not a true language family.

In recent years, the Japanese linguist Shichiro Murayama and others have tried to link Ainu to the Austronesian languages through both vocabulary and cultural comparisons.

Alexander Vovin (1993) presented evidence suggesting a distant connection with Austroasiatic. He regards this hypothesis as preliminary.

Joseph Greenberg (2000, 2002) classed Ainu with Korean and Japanese. He regarded Korean-Japanese-Ainu as forming a distinct subgroup within his proposed Eurasiatic language family.

None of these proposals has gained wide acceptance at the present time (2008).

Ainu appears to have experienced intensive contact with the Nivkhs during the course of their history. It is not known to what extent this has affected the language. Some linguists believe the shared vocabulary between Ainu and Nivkh (spoken in the northern half of Sakhalin and on the Asian mainland facing it) is due to borrowing.

There are also loanwords both from Ainu to Japanese and Japanese to Ainu.

[edit] Speakers

Ainu is a moribund language, and has been endangered for at least the past few decades. Most of the 150,000 ethnic Ainu in Japan speak only Japanese. In the town of Nibutani (part of Biratori, Hokkaidō) where many of the remaining native speakers live, there are 100 speakers, out of which only 15 used the language every day in the late 1980s. The number of speakers today (by whatever definition one may use) is not known with any certainty. In all of Hokkaidō, it is estimated that there are perhaps 1,000 native speakers, almost all older than 30.[citation needed] Among Ainu speakers (broadly defined), second-language learners presently outnumber native ones.

However, use of the language is on the rise. There is currently an active movement to revitalize the language — mainly in Hokkaidō but also elsewhere — to reverse the centuries-long decline in the number of speakers. This has led to an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaidō, in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist and former Diet member Shigeru Kayano, himself a native speaker.

[edit] Phonology

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

There are five vowels:

The vowels of Ainu
  Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Consonants:

The consonants of Ainu
  Bilabial Labio-
velar		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Stop p   t   k ʔ
Affricate     ts      
Nasal m   n      
Fricative     s     h
Approximant   w   j    
Tap/flap     ɾ      

The glottal stop /ʔ/ only occurs at the beginning of words, before an accented vowel. The sequence /ti/ is realized as [ʧi] and /s/ becomes [ʃ] before /i/ and at the end of syllables. The affricate /ts/ has voiced and post-alveolar variants. There is some variation among dialects; in the Sakhalin dialect, syllable-final /p, t, k, r/ lenited and merged into /x/. After an /i/, this /x/ is pronounced as [ç].

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

[edit] Typology and grammar

Ainu is SOV, with postpositions. Subject and object are usually marked with postpositions. Nouns can cluster to modify one another; the head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently either transitive or intransitive, accept various derivational affixes.

Typologically, Ainu is similar in word order (and some aspects of phonology) to Japanese and Korean, while its high degree of synthesis is more reminiscent of languages to its north and east.

Ainu traditionally featured incorporation of nouns and adverbs; this is rare in the modern colloquial language.

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

[edit] Writing

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

[edit] Special katakana for the Ainu language

A Unicode standard exists for a set of extended katakana (Katakana Phonetic Extensions) for transliterating the Ainu language and other languages written with katakana.[3][4] These characters are used to write final consonants and sounds that cannot be expressed using conventional katakana. The extended katakana are based on regular katakana and are either smaller in size, or feature a dakuten or handakuten. As few fonts yet support these extensions, workarounds exist for many of the characters, such as the small katakana ク ku used as in アイヌイタク (Aynu itak).

This is a list of special katakana used in transcribing the Ainu language. Most of the characters are of the extended set of katakana, though a few have been used historically in Japanese, and thus are part of the main set of katakana. A number of previously proposed characters have been removed from future Unicode implementations as they can be easily displayed as a combination of two existing characters.

Character Unicode Appearance Name Ainu usage
ㇰ 31F0 ク Katakana Letter Small Ku Final k
ㇱ 31F1 シ Katakana Letter Small Si Final s [ʃʲ]
ㇲ 31F2 ス Katakana Letter Small Su Final s, used to emphasize it's pronounced [s] rather than normal [ʃʲ]. [s] and [ʃ] are allophones in Ainu.
ㇳ 31F3 ト Katakana Letter Small To Final t
ㇴ 31F4 ヌ Katakana Letter Small Nu Final n
ㇵ 31F5 ハ Katakana Letter Small Ha Final h [x], succeeding the vowel a. (e.g. アハ ah) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇶ 31F6 ヒ Katakana Letter Small Hi Final h [ç], succeeding the vowel i. (e.g. イヒ ih) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇷ 31F7 フ Katakana Letter Small Hu Final h [x], succeeding the vowel u. (e.g. ウフ uh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇸ 31F8 ヘ Katakana Letter Small He Final h [x], succeeding the vowel e. (e.g. エヘ eh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇹ 31F9 ホ Katakana Letter Small Ho Final h [x], succeeding the vowel o. (e.g. オホ oh) Sakhalin dialect only.
ㇺ 31FA ム Katakana Letter Small Mu Final m
ㇻ 31FB ラ Katakana Letter Small Ra Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel a. (e.g. アラ ar)
ㇼ 31FC リ Katakana Letter Small Ri Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel i. (e.g. イリ ir)
ㇽ 31FD ル Katakana Letter Small Ru Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel u. (e.g. ウル ur)
ㇾ 31FE レ Katakana Letter Small Re Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel e. (e.g. エレ er)
ㇿ 31FF ロ Katakana Letter Small Ro Final r [ɾ], succeeding the vowel o. (e.g. オロ or)
Rejected characters (Unicode represents them using combining characters)
31F7 + 309A プ Katakana Letter Small Pu Final p
30BB + 309A セ゜ Katakana Letter Se With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark ce [tse]
30C4 + 309A ツ゜ Katakana Letter Tu With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark tu. ツ゜ and ト゜ are interchangeable.
30C8 + 309A ト゜ Katakana Letter To With Semi-Voiced Sound Mark tu. ツ゜ and ト゜ are interchangeable.

[edit] Basic syllables

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

[edit] Diphthongs

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

Example with initial k:

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

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

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

[edit] Long vowels

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

Example with initial k:

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

[edit] Oral literature

The Ainu have rich oral tradition of hero-sagas called Yukar, which retain a number of grammatical and lexical archaisms.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ SIL Ethnologue, 15th edition (2005)
  2. ^ ISO 639-2/RA Change Notice - Codes for the representation of names of languages (Library of Congress). Retrieved on 15 November, 2005.
  3. ^ Katakana Phonetic Extensions – Test for Unicode support in Web browsers. Retrieved on 14 December, 2005.
  4. ^ The Unicode Standard, 4.1. Retrieved on 14 December, 2006.

[edit] References and further reading

  • Greenberg, Joseph H. (2000-2002). Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3812-2, ISBN 0-8047-4624-9. 
  • Patrie, James (1982). The Genetic Relationship of the Ainu Language. Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii. ISBN 0-8248-0724-3. 
  • Refsing, Kirsten (1986). The Ainu Language: The Morphology and Syntax of the Shizunai Dialect. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. ISBN 8-772-88020-1. 
  • Refsing, Kirsten (1996). Early European Writings on the Ainu Language. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-700-70400-0. 
  • Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36918-5. 
  • Tamura, Suzuko (2000). The Ainu Language. Tokyo: Sanseido. ISBN 4-385-35976-8. 
  • Vovin, Alexander (1993). A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-09905-0. 

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Incubator

[edit] Japanese