Ainu language

This article is about the language spoken on Hokkaido. For the language family, seeAinu languages.

Not to be confused withÄynu language.

Ainu(アイヌ イタㇰ,aynu itak), or more preciselyHokkaido Ainu(Japanese:Bắc hải đạo アイヌ ngữ), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of theAinu peopleon the northern Japanese island ofHokkaido.It is a member of theAinu language family,itself considered alanguage family isolatewith no academic consensus of origin. It is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Hokkaido Ainu
アイヌ イタㇰaynu itak
Multilingual sign inJapanese,Ainu,English,Korean,andChinese.The Ainu text, inkatakana,is second down from the top on the right side of the sign. It readsイヤイライケㇾ(iyairaiker), meaning "thank you".
Pronunciation	[ˈainuiˈtak]
Native to	Japan
Region	Hokkaido
Ethnicity	25,000 (1986) to ca. 200,000 (no date)Ainu people
Native speakers	2 (2008)
Language family	Ainu Hokkaido Ainu
Writing system	Katakana(current) Latin(current)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	ain
ISO 639-3	ain
Glottolog	ainu1240
ELP	Ainu (Japan) Ainu (Japan)
Ainu is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger

An Ainu speaker, recorded in Japan

Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinctKuril AinuandSakhalin Ainu– were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island ofSakhalinand by small numbers of people in theKuril Islands.Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is nowmoribund.A very low number of elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it.

Speakers

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

The term "Ainu" comes from theendonymof theAinu people,aynu(アイヌ), meaning "people" or "human".

According toUNESCO,Ainu is anendangered languagewith few native speakers.Although there are estimated to be at least 30,000 Ainu people in Japan,there is a low rate of self-identification as Ainu among people with Ainu ethnic roots.Knowledge of the language was already endangered by the 1960s and has continued to decline since. In 2011,just 304 people within Japan were reported to understand the Ainu language to some extent.As of 2016,Ethnologuelisted Ainu as "nearly extinct" (class 8b).

In 2017, 671 people participated in a Hokkaido government survey on the lives of Ainu people.Participants were believed to be descendants of Ainu people or those who joined Ainu families by marriage or adoption.In response to survey questions about fluency in the Ainu language, 0.7% of participants answered that they "would be able to have a conversation" in Ainu, 3.4% answered that they "would be able to converse a little", 44.6% answered they "could barely converse at all", and 48.1% answered that they "would not be able to converse at all".In a subsequent survey of 472 respondents in 2023, these figures had shifted to 0.8%, 8.9%, 19.3%, and 69.3% respectively.

Official recognition

TheJapanese governmentmade a decision to recognize Ainu as anindigenous languagein June 2008.The Japanese government approved and passed abillofficially recognising the indigeneity of theAinu peoplein 2019.

On 12 July 2020, the Japanese government opened theNational Ainu MuseuminShiraoi,Hokkaido.It forms one of three institutions named Upopoy (which means 'singing in a large group' in the Ainu language) alongside the National Ainu Park and a memorial site on high ground on the east side of Lake Poroto (ポロト hồ ) where Ainu services are held. Its director, Masahiro Nomoto, says that "One of our main objectives is to preserve and revive the language, as this is one of the most threatened elements ofAinu culture".

Announcements on some bus routes in Hokkaido can since be heard in Ainu, efforts are being undertaken to archive Ainu speech recordings by theAgency for Cultural Affairs,and there is a popular educationalYouTube channelwhich teaches conversational Ainu.

While these measures have been praised for taking steps to protect the Ainu language and culture, the museum and related government efforts have been criticised for failing to acknowledge the history of Japanese discrimination against the Ainu people, and for the government's refusal to apologise for past misdeeds against the Ainu.

Phonology

Ainusyllablesare (C)V(C); they have an obligatory vowel, and an optionalsyllable onsetandcodaconsisting of one consonant. There are fewconsonant clusters.

Vowels

There are fivevowelsin Ainu:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t		k
Affricate		t͡s
Fricative		s			h
Flap		ɾ
Semivowel			j	w

Obstruents/ptts~tʃk/may be voiced[bddz~dʒɡ]between vowels and after nasals./t͡s/can be heard as[t͡ʃ]in free variation among speakers. Both/ti/and/tsi/are realized as[t͡ʃi],and/s/becomes[ʃ]before/i/and at the end of syllables./h/is heard as[ɸ]when occurring before/u/./n/is heard as[ŋ]when before/k/,as well as in final position. A glottal stop[ʔ]is often inserted at the beginning of words, before an accented vowel, but is non-phonemic.

The Ainu language also has apitch accentsystem. Generally, words containingaffixeshave a high pitch on a syllable in the stem. This will typically fall on the first syllable if that is long (has a final consonant or a diphthong), and will otherwise fall on the second syllable, though there are exceptions to this generalization.

Typology and grammar

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

Ainu has a canonical word order ofsubject, object, verb,and uses postpositions rather thanprepositions.Nounscan cluster to modify one another; the head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently eithertransitiveor intransitive, accept variousderivational affixes.Ainu does not havegrammatical gender.Plurals are indicated by a suffix.

Classical Ainu, the language of theyukar,ispolysynthetic,withincorporationof nouns and adverbs; this is greatly reduced in the modern colloquial language.

Applicativesmay be used in Ainu to place nouns indative,instrumental,comitative,locative,allative,orablativeroles. Besides freestanding nouns, these roles may be assigned to incorporated nouns, and such use of applicatives is in fact mandatory for incorporatingobliquenouns. Like incorporation, applicatives have grown less common in the modern language.

Ainu has a closed class ofplural verbs,and some of these aresuppletive.

Ainu has a system of verbal affixes (shown below) which mark agreement for person and case. The specific cases that are marked differ by person, withnominative–accusative markingfor the first person singular,tripartite markingfor the first person plural andindefinite (or 'fourth')person, anddirect or 'neutral' markingfor the second singular and plural, and third persons (i.e. the affixes do not differ by case).

Saru Ainu agreement affixes

		Subject		Object
		Intransitive	Transitive (Agent)
1st person	singular	ku- ク-		en- エン-
	plural	-as -アㇲ	ci- チ-	un- ウン-
2nd person	singular	e- エ-
	plural	eci- エチ-
3rd person		Ø-
4th person		-an -アン	a- ア-	i- イ

a.

クイタㇰ.

Ku-itak.

1SG-speak

クイタㇰ.

Ku-itak.

1SG-speak

'I spoke.'

b.

エイタㇰ.

E-itak.

2SG-speak

エイタㇰ.

E-itak.

2SG-speak

You(SG)spoke.'

c.

イタㇰ.

Itak.

speak

イタㇰ.

Itak.

speak

'He spoke.'

Sentence types

Intransitive sentences

a.

クアニ

Kuani

I

クイタㇰ.

ku-itak.

1SG-speak

クアニ クイタㇰ.

Kuani ku-itak.

I 1SG-speak

'I spoke.'

b.

アィヌ

Aynu

person

エㇰ.

ek.

come

アィヌ エㇰ.

Aynu ek.

person come

'A person came.'

c.

ポン

Pon

small

ツ゚レシ

turesi

sister

カ

ka

too

イサㇺ.

isam.

die

( thạch thú )

(Ishikari)

ポン ツ゚レシ カ イサㇺ.

Pon turesi ka isam.

small sister too die

'The small sister too died.'

Transitive and ditransitive sentences

a.

アエコィキ.

A-e-koyki.

1SG-2SG-kill

( hổ trượng )

(Itadori)

アエコィキ.

A-e-koyki.

1SG-2SG-kill

'I kill you.'

b.

Kim điền nhất

Kindaichi

Kindaichi

Điện

tono

chief

ニㇱパ

nispa

sir

クヌカㇻ.

ku-nukar.

1SG-see

(Ishikari)

Kim điền nhất điện ニㇱパ クヌカㇻ.

Kindaichi tono nispa ku-nukar.

Kindaichi chief sir 1SG-see

'I met Mr. Kindaichi.'

c.

カムィ

Kamuy

bear

ウンマ

umma

horse

ラィケ.

rayke.

kill

カムィ ウンマ ラィケ.

Kamuy umma rayke.

bear horse kill

'A bear killed a horse.'

Writing

Gospel of Johnin Latin-script Ainu

The Ainu language is written in a modified version of the Japanesekatakanasyllabary,although it is possible for Japanese loan words and names to be written inkanji(for example, "mobile phone" can be writtenケイタイデンワorHuề đái điện thoại). There is also aLatin-based alphabetin use. TheAinu Timespublishes in both. In the Latinorthography,/ts/is spelledcand/j/is spelledy;the glottal stop,[ʔ],which only occurs initially before accented vowels, is not written. Other phonemes use the same character as the IPA transcription given above. An equals sign (=) is used to markmorphemeboundaries, such as after a prefix. Its pitch accent is denoted byacute accentin Latin script (e.g.,á). This is usually not denoted in katakana.

Rev.John Batchelorwas an English missionary who lived among the Ainu, studied them and published many works on the Ainu language.Batchelor wrote extensively, both works about the Ainu language and works in Ainu itself. He was the first to write in Ainu and use a writing system for it.Batchelor's translationsof various books of the Bible were published from 1887, and hisNew Testamenttranslation was published in Yokohama in 1897 by a joint committee of theBritish and Foreign Bible Society,theAmerican Bible Society,and theNational Bible Society of Scotland.Other books written in Ainu include dictionaries, a grammar, and books on Ainu culture and language.

Special katakana for the Ainu language

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

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

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

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]	ka カ [ka]	ki キ [ki]	ku ク [ku̜]	ke ケ [ke]	ko コ [ko]
	-k ㇰ [-k̚]
s [s]~[ʃ]	sa シャ / サ [sa]~[ʃa]	si シ [ʃi]	su シュ / ス [su̜]~[ʃu̜]	se シェ / セ [se]~[ʃe]	so ショ / ソ [so]~[ʃo]
	-s ㇱ / ㇲ [-ɕ]
t [t]	ta タ [ta]	ci チ [tʃi]	tuト゚/ツ゚ [tu̜]	te テ [te]	to ト [to]
	-t ㇳ / ッ [-t̚]
c [ts]~[tʃ]	ca チャ [tsa]~[tʃa]	ci チ [tʃi]	cu ツ / チュ [tsu̜]~[tʃu̜]	ceセ゚/ 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 ㇴ / ン [-n,-m-,-ŋ-]
h [h]	ha ハ [ha]	hi ヒ [çi]	hu フ [ɸu̜]	he ヘ [he]	ho ホ [ho]
-h [-x]	-ah ㇵ [-ax]	-ih ㇶ [-iç]	-uh ㇷ [-u̜x]	-eh ㇸ [-ex]	-oh ㇹ [-ox]
p [p]	pa パ [pa]	pi ピ [pi]	pu プ [pu̜]	pe ペ [pe]	po ポ [po]
	-p ㇷ゚ [-p̚]
m [m]	ma マ [ma]	mi ミ [mi]	mu ム [mu̜]	me メ [me]	mo モ [mo]
	-m ㇺ [-m]
y [j]	ya ヤ [ja]		yu ユ [ju̜]	ye イェ [je]	yo ヨ [jo]
r [ɾ]	ra ラ [ɾa]	ri リ [ɾi]	ru ル [ɾu̜]	re レ [ɾe]	ro ロ [ɾo]
	-ar ㇻ [-aɾ]	-ir ㇼ [-iɾ]	-ur ㇽ [-u̜ɾ]	-er ㇾ [-eɾ]	-or ㇿ [-oɾ]
	-r ㇽ [-ɾ]
w [w]	wa ワ [wa]	wi ウィ / ヰ [wi]		we ウェ / ヱ [we]	wo ウォ / ヲ [wo]

Diphthongs

Final[ɪ]is spelledyin Latin, small ィ in katakana. Final[ʊ]is spelledwin Latin, small ゥ in katakana. Large イ and ウ are used if there is a morpheme boundary with イ and ウ at the morpheme head.[ae]is spelledae,アエ or アェ.

Example withinitialk:

[kaɪ]	[ku̜ɪ]	[keɪ]	[koɪ]	[kaʊ]	[kiʊ]	[keʊ]	[koʊ]
kay	kuy	key	koy	kaw	kiw	kew	kow
カィ	クィ	ケィ	コィ	カゥ	キゥ	ケゥ	コゥ
[ka.ɪ]	[ku̜.ɪ]	[ke.ɪ]	[ko.ɪ]	[ka.u̜]	[ki.u̜]	[ke.u̜]	[ko.u̜]
ka=i	ku=i	ke=i	ko=i	ka=u	ki=u	ke=u	ko=u
カイ	クイ	ケイ	コイ	カウ	キウ	ケウ	コウ

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

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

Oral literature

The Ainu have a richoral traditionof hero-sagas calledyukar,which retain a number of grammatical and lexical archaisms.Yukarwere memorized and told at get-togethers and ceremonies that often lasted hours or even days. The Ainu also have another form of narrative often used calledUepeker,which was used in the same contexts.

A native written form of the Ainu language has never existed; therefore, the Ainu people traditionally relied on memorization and oral communication to pass down their literature to the next generation.Ainu literature includes nonfiction, such as their history and "hunting adventures," and fiction such as stories about spiritual avatars, magic,myths, and heroes.

Research on oral literature

The oral literature of the Ainu languages has been studied mainly by Japanese and European researchers;thus, Ainu literature has been transcribed using writing systems such as Japanesekatakana(commonly used for foreign-language text) and theLatin alphabet,and documented in the languages of the researchers themselves.One prominent researcher of the Ainu languages isBronisław Piłsudski,a Polish anthropologist who lived in Sakhalin from 1886 to 1905,and who published "Materials for the Study of the Ainu Language and Folklore" in 1912.In addition, Piłsudski made audio recordings from 1902 to 1903, which is believed to be the first attempt to do so in the history of Ainu oral literature study.Japanese linguist Kyosuke Kindaichi is also famous for his work on the oral literature of the Ainu languages,and for his publicationAinu monogatari: tsuketari Ainugo taii oyobi goi(あいぬ vật ngữ: Phụ ・あいぬ ngữ đại ý cập ngữ hối)in 1913.

Recent history

Many of the speakers of Ainu lost the language with the advent of Japanese colonization, which formally began with the establishment of theHokkaido Colonization Officein 1869. Japanese officials viewed the assimilation of Ainu a critical component of the Hokkaido colonization project, and developed policies designed to discourage or eliminate the use of the Ainu language, cultural practices, and traditional lifeways.The assimilation included the exploitation of Ainu land, the commodification of their culture, and the placing of Ainu children in schools where they learned only Japanese.

More recently, the Japanese government has acknowledged the Ainu people as an indigenous population. As of 1997 they were given indigenous rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to their culture, heritage, and language.

The Ainu Cultural Promotion Act in 1997 appointed the Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC). This foundation is tasked with language education, where they promote Ainu language learning through training instructors, advanced language classes and creation and development of language materials.

Revitalization

In general, Ainu people are hard to find because they tend to hide their identity as Ainu, especially in the young generation. Two thirds of Ainu youth do not know that they are Ainu.In addition, because Ainu students were strongly discouraged from speaking their language at school,it has been challenging for the Ainu language to be revitalized.

Despite this, there is an active movement torevitalizethe language, mainly in Hokkaido but also elsewhere such asKanto.Ainu oral literature has been documented both in hopes of safeguarding it for future generations, as well as using it as a teaching tool for language learners.Beginning in 1987, theAinu Association of Hokkaido,with approximately 500 members,began hosting 14 Ainu language classes, Ainu language instructors training courses and Family Ainu Learning Initiativeand have released instructional materials on the language, including a textbook.Also,Yamatolinguists teach Ainu and train students to become Ainu instructors in university.In spite of these efforts, as of 2011the Ainu language was not yet taught as a subject in any secondary school in Japan.

Due to the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act of 1997, Ainu dictionaries transformed and became tools for improving communication and preserving records of the Ainu language in order to revitalize the language and promote the culture.This act had aims to promote, disseminate, and advocate on behalf of Ainu cultural traditions.The main issue with this act however, was that not a single Ainu person was included in the "Expert" meetings prior to the law's passage, and as a result of this there was no mention of language education and how it should be carried out.The focus at this point was on Ainu culture revitalization rather than Ainu language revitalization.

As of 2011, there has been an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaido, in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist and formerDietmemberShigeru Kayano,himself a native speaker, who first opened an Ainu language school in 1987 funded byAinu Kyokai.TheAinu Association of Hokkaidois the main supporter of Ainu culture in Hokkaido.Ainu language classes have been conducted in some areas in Japan and small numbers of young people are learning Ainu. Efforts have also been made to produce web-accessible materials for conversational Ainu because most documentation of the Ainu language focused on the recording of folktales.The Ainu language has been in media as well; the first Ainu radio program was calledFM Pipaushi,which has run since 2001 along with 15-minute radio Ainu language lessons funded by FRPAC,and newspaperThe Ainu Timeshas been established since 1997.In 2016, a radio course was broadcast by the STVradio Broadcasting to introduce Ainu language. The course put extensive efforts in promoting the language, creating 4 text books in each season throughout the year.

In addition, the Ainu language has been seen in public domains such as the outlet shopping complex's name,Rera,which means 'wind', in theMinami Chitosearea and the namePewre,meaning 'young', at a shopping centre in theChitosearea. There is also a basketball team inSapporofounded under the nameRera Kamuy Hokkaido,afterrera kamuy'god of the wind' (its current name isLevanga Hokkaido).The well-known Japanese fashion magazine's nameNon-nomeans 'flower' in Ainu.

Another Ainu language revitalization program is Urespa, a university program to educate high-level persons on the language of the Ainu. The effort is a collaborative and cooperative program for individuals wishing to learn about Ainu languages. This includes performances which focus on the Ainu and their language, instead of using the dominant Japanese language.

Another form of Ainu language revitalization is an annual national competition, which is Ainu language-themed. People of many differing demographics are often encouraged to take part in the contest. Since 2017, the popularity of the contest has increased.

On 15 February 2019, Japan approved a bill to recognize the Ainu language for the first timeand enacted the law on April 19, 2019.

Outside of Japan, there have also been efforts to revive the Ainu culture and language in other countries, includingAustraliaandRussia.

In 2019, researchers working together from both the Society for Academic Research of Ainu (SARC), representatives from Hokkaido University, and with the assistance of linguists spanning multiple universities and countries assisted in the creation of AI Pirika, an AI created with the goal of assisting with speech recognition and serving as a conversation partner.

Sample text

Below is a sample text from a traditional Ainu folktale, in Ainu, Japanese and English.

Ainu original	Latin transliteration	Japanese translation	English translation
シネアン ト タ ベテトㇰ ウン シノタㇱ クス パイェアㇱ アワ, ベテトㇰタ シネ ポンルㇷ゚ネクㇿ ネスコ ウライ カㇿ クス ウライキㇰ ネアㇷ゚ コサニㇰケ ウカン プナㇱ・プナㇱ.	Sinean to ta petetok un sinotas kusu payeas awa, petetokta sine ponrupnekur nesko urai kar kusu uraikik neap kosanikkeukan punas-punas.	ある nhật に ( xuyên の ) thủy nguyên の phương へ ( tư が ) du ぶに ( tư が ) xuất かけたら ( tư いがけなく ) ( xuyên の ) thủy nguyên に nhất nhân の tiểu nam が hồ đào ( くるみ ) の mộc の lương ( やな ) をたてるため ( hồ đào の mộc の ) hàng を đả っていた. ( それに hạ げた ) yêu を kỉ độ も thượng げて lập っている. ( yêu を khúc げ khúc げしている. )	One day, as I went out to play at the spring, there was a little man at the spring hitting stakes made of walnut wood, in order to erect (some) wooden beams. His hip bent (and he bent down) and he straightened out (as he worked, going up and down over and over).

References

Bibliography

• Bugaeva, Anna (2010)."Internet applications for endangered languages: A talking dictionary of Ainu"(PDF).Waseda Institute for Advanced Study Research Bulletin.3:73–81. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2021-05-12.
• Cheung, S.C.H. (2003)."Ainu Culture in Transition".Futures.35(9):951–959.doi:10.1016/s0016-3287(03)00051-x.
• Dal Corso, Elia (2016)."Morphological alignment in Saru Ainu: A direct-inverse analysis"(PDF).SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics.18:3–28. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2020-12-07.Retrieved2020-07-04.
• Gayman, Jeffry (2011). "Ainu right to education and Ainu practice of 'education': current situation and imminent issues in light of Indigenous education rights and theory".Intercultural Education.22(1):15–27.doi:10.1080/14675986.2011.549642.S2CID144373133.
• Hansen, A. S. (2014). "Re-vitalizing an Indigenous Language: Dictionaries of Ainu Languages in Japan, 1625–2013".Lexicographica.30(1):547–578.doi:10.1515/lexi-2014-0017.S2CID156901164.
• Maruyama, Hiroshi (2014). "Japan's Policies Towards the Ainu Language and Culture with Special Reference to North Fennoscandian Sami Policies".Acta Borealia.31(2):152–175.doi:10.1080/08003831.2014.967980.S2CID145497777.
• Martin, Kylie (2011)."Aynu itak: On the Road to Ainu Language Revitalization"(PDF).Media and Communication Studiesメディア·コミュニケーション nghiên cứu.60:57–93.hdl:2115/47031.Archived(PDF)from the original on 2015-04-21.
• Miyaoka, Osahito; Sakiyama, Osamu; Krauss, Michael E., eds. (2007).The Vanishing Languages of the Pacific Rim.Oxford:Oxford University Press.pp.377–382.doi:10.1093/oso/9780199266623.001.0001.ISBN978-0-19-153289-4.
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• Piłsudsk, Bronisław (1912).Materials for the study of the Ainu language and folklore.Poland: Imperial academy of science.
• Savage, Theresa; Longo, Michael (2013)."Legal Frameworks for the Protection of Ainu Language and Culture in Japan: International and European Perspectives".Japanese Studies.33(1):101–120.doi:10.1080/10371397.2013.782098.hdl:1959.3/313493.S2CID145788025.
• Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990)."Part 1: The Ainu Language"(PDF).The Languages of Japan.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-36918-3– via theswissbay.ch.
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Further reading

• Hattori, Shirō,ed. (1964).Bunrui Ainugo hōgen jiten[An Ainu dialect dictionary with Ainu, Japanese, and English indexes]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
• Miller, Roy Andrew (1967).The Japanese Language.Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle.
• Refsing, Kirsten (1986).The Ainu Language: The Morphology and Syntax of the Shizunai Dialect.Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.ISBN978-87-7288-020-4.
• Refsing, Kirsten (1996).Early European Writings on the Ainu Language.London: Routledge.ISBN978-0-7007-0400-2.
• Tamura, Suzuko (2000).The Ainu Language.Tokyo: Sanseido.ISBN978-4-385-35976-2.
• Vovin, Alexander (2008)."Man'yōshū to Fudoki ni Mirareru Fushigina Kotoba to Jōdai Nihon Retto ni Okeru Ainugo no Bunpu"[Strange Words in theMan'yoshūand theFudokiand the Distribution of the Ainu Language in the Japanese Islands in Prehistory](PDF).Kokusai Nihon Bunka Kenkyū Sentā. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2014-02-11.Retrieved2011-01-17.
• Miyake, Marc.2010.Is theitakan isolate?

External links

• Literature and materials for learning AinuArchived2008-09-17 at theWayback Machine
• The Book of Common Prayer in Ainu,translated by John Batchelor, digitized by Richard Mammana and Charles Wohlers
• Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of AinuinSamani, Hokkaido
• A Grammar of the Ainu LanguagebyJohn Batchelor
• An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary,includingA Grammar of the Ainu Languageby John Batchelor
• "The 'Greater Austric' hypothesis"by John Bengtson (undated)
• Ainu for BeginnersArchived2008-12-09 at theWayback Machineby Kane Kumagai, translated by Yongdeok Cho
• Radio lessons on Ainu language presented by Sapporo TV(in Japanese)
• A talking dictionary of Ainu: a new version of Kanazawa's Ainu conversational dictionary,with recordings of Mrs. Setsu Kurokawa