Ainu for beginners.pdf

LANGUAGES OF THE

WORLD

Ainu for

Beginners

A Guide for Beginners

Francisco José da Silva

Lesson 1: Simple Sentences -1

Sentences

ウパシ　ル。

Upas ru.

Snow melts.

アチャポ　エク。

Acapo ek

Uncle comes.

Pronunciation

Ainu ク is a sound that does not exist in Japanese, it is simply final

consonant -k instead of normal Japanese Katakana pronunciation of -ku .

Ainu allows consonant finals while Japanese does not (with the exception

of -n ) and a set of Katakana extensions have been created to be used to

write Ainu. Although they are now in Unicode, it would require a special

font to view the Katakana extension properly and hence I just have used

the smaller font size.

Those who are not familiar with the Katakana may just stick to the Roman

Ainu. Roman Ainu is fairly phonetic, but note that c (as in " acapo ") is

pronounced similar to ch as in English " church" . But it will be helpful to

learn Katakana as well as although both Roman and Katakana are used to

write Ainu, Katakana is more common.

Japanese loanwords and proper names may remain in Japanese Kanji even

in Ainu when it is written in Katakana.

More examples using Ainu Katakana:

チシ

Cis

To cry

コシネ

Kosne

To be light

イルシカ

Iruska

To be angry

アク

Younger brother

ホク

Hok

To buy, purchase

タクネ

Takne

To be short

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) Whale rises

2) Rain falls.

Solutions

1) フンペ　ヤン　 humpe yan

2) ルヤンペ　アシ　 ruyanpe as

Vocabulary

アチャポ

Acapo

Uncle

ウパシ

Upas

Snow

エク

To come

ル

To melt. Road.

ヤン

Yan

To rise

フンペ

Humpe

Whale

アシ

To fall

ルヤンペ

Ruyanpe

Rain

Lesson 2: Simple Sentences - 2

Sentences

タント　レラ　アシ。

Tanto rera as.

The wind blows today.

タネ　メアン。

Tane mean.

Now (it is) cold.

Grammar

The basic word order of Ainu is Subject-Object-Verb, similar to Japanese.

Ainu verbs do not conjugate according to the time tense, and this led to a

certain disagreement in the linguistic analysis. While some linguists (Chiri,

Shibatani) maintain that the Ainu basic verb form is best translated as past

tense, there are the others (Refsing) who disagree with the idea. In most

cases the context is sufficient enough to determine whether the tense is

past or present, and the specific words are added to clarify the time phrase

when it is necessary.

" アシ as " from the last lesson has many meanings. Rain falls, snow falls,

wind blows, and in other natural phenomena in general. When it is used to

describe an action of a person, it means " to stand ." " アシ as " used in the

sentence is translated as " to blow ", but in Ainu context it is permissible to

translate it simply as " to do ."

Pronunciation

Ainu accents are different from Japanese. Ainu pronounced with Japanese

(or any other foreign accent for that matter) would still be understood, but

it won’t be natural. Ainu stress often falls on the second syllable.

タネ

Tane

Now

チセ

Cise

House

シタ

Sita

Dog

ポロ

Poro

To be big, large

ヌカル

Nukar

To see, look at

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) Today is cold.

2) Snow falls a lot this year.

Solutions

1) タント　メアン　 tanto mean

2) タント　ウパシ　ポロ　 tanto upas poro

Vocabulary

アシ

To blow

タネ

Tane

Now

タント

Tanto

Today (tan "this" + to

"day")

メアン

Mean

To be cold

レラ

Rera

Wind

ウパシ

Upas

Snow

ポロ

Poro

To be big, much

タンパ

Tanpa

This year

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