Questions tagged [ainu]
アイヌ語. A moribund language spoken by some Ainu, an indigenous people mainly living on the island of Hokkaidō. It is not regarded as related to Japanese.
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Why do we believe that 神 is likely to be a loan from Ainu?
I recently read the document "Old Japanese Loanwords" by Frellesvig, where he states:
OJ kamwi ~ kamu- 'spirit, deity' may well be borrowed from an ancestor of Ainu kamuy 'bear; deity'.
Ever since ...
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How would one go about romanizing Aynu Itak?
I've been casually studying Itak on and off in between my usual schoolwork and obvious Japanese studies. However, I've been more and more bothered by a particular issue as I've gone on: how does one ...
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Is the Ainu name for every part of the body monosyllabic?
I've heard a friend say that the Ainu word for every part of the human body is monosyllabic, and that all words in Ainu are made up of the syllables from those words. Is either claim true?
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Are there any common Japanese words which were borrowed from Ainu or other indigenous languages?
I know plenty of Japanese words that came from English and a few from other European languages (obviously tons from Chinese), but what about words from Japan's indigenous languages such as Ainu? Also ...
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