Chapter 65The eci= Portmanteau (1A→2O) and Second-Person Plural Syncretism

65.1 The two functions of eci=

The prefix eci= occupies two cells in the Hokkaido Ainu personal-index system. As the second-person plural index it marks the agent, subject, or object of a predicate whose addressee participant is plural, in parallel with the second-person singular e=. As the portmanteau for first-to-second combinations it simultaneously indexes the subject and the object when a first-person agent — singular or exclusive plural — acts on a second-person object, singular or plural. The two functions share a single surface form, producing a syncretism that surrounding context consistently resolves Nakagawa (2024: 166–173); Tamura (1972: 27–28); Bugaeva (2012: 471–474).

The full S/A/O paradigm and its alignment patterns are set out in Chapter 62 (Architecture of the Personal-Affix System: The Four Persons and the S/A/O Paradigms). The present chapter develops the two functions of eci=, the syncretism between them, and the interaction with Hokkaido plural marking. Adjacent paradigm material belongs to Chapter 63 (First- and Second-Person Singular Affixes (ku=/en=, e=/e=)) for e= and en=, to Chapter 66 (Object Indexing: Monotransitive and Ditransitive Clauses) for the two-index cap and ditransitive object choice, and to Chapter 70 (Person–Number Interactions and Plural Agreement) for plural agreement. Bugaeva (2012: §15); Tamura (1972)

65.2 Second-person neutrality: e= and eci=

Both e= and eci= carry no subject–object distinction: the same form appears whether the addressee is the agent of a transitive verb, the sole argument of an intransitive verb, or the object of a transitive verb with a third-person agent Bugaeva (2012: 471–472); Satō (2008: 31–32); Tamura (1972: 27). Tamura's formulation is explicit: the second-person affix marks the subject and the object without distinction Tamura (1972: 27). The S=A=O patterning places second person in the neutral column of the mixed alignment system, alongside the zero third person, and against the nominative–accusative 1SG and the tripartite 1PL.EXCL and fourth person ‹consensus›.

Nakagawa's combination tables record eci= as the 2PL index in Saru, Chitose, Horobetsu, and Shizunai, while Ishikari and Tokachi also show es= in the second-plural row Nakagawa (2024: 166–172). Where a dialect supplies es=, it fills the same neutral paradigm cell with the same functional range.

65.3 The 1A→2O portmanteau

When a first-person agent acts on a second-person object, eci= indexes the complete local-person relation. The four subject/object number combinations — 1SG acting on 2SG, 1SG acting on 2PL, 1PL.EXCL acting on 2SG, and 1PL.EXCL acting on 2PL — all receive the same prefix. The stacked sequences *ku=e=, *ku=eci=, *ci=e=, and *ci=eci= are unattested and ungrammatical. Bugaeva enumerates all four covered combinations explicitly; Nakagawa's Saru combination table places eci= in every 1→2 cell; Tamura's earlier Saru analysis already treats the form as the second-person affix used in the first-to-second-person relation Bugaeva (2008: 38); Bugaeva (2012: 474); Nakagawa (2024: 170, 173); Tamura (1972: 27–28) ‹consensus›.

The portmanteau character of the 1→2 form is confirmed by the contrast with the 1→4 combination. Nakagawa's Saru combination table records eci=i= when the agent is first person and the object is fourth person: the agent index eci= and the fourth-person object i= appear as separate prefixes Nakagawa (2024: 170). The 1→2 cells merge the two slots into one, in keeping with the two-index cap: a verb carries at most one agent index and one object index, and the portmanteau satisfies both positions simultaneously. The cap and its consequences for three-argument verbs are treated in Chapter 66 (Object Indexing: Monotransitive and Ditransitive Clauses).

65.4 Resolving the syncretism

A verb beginning with eci= is formally ambiguous among 2PL.S, 2PL.A, 2PL.O, and the 1→2 portmanteau. Several cues resolve the ambiguity. On an intransitive predicate, which has no object slot, the form can only be 2PL.S. On a transitive predicate with an overt third-person subject noun phrase, the 2PL.O reading is forced; with an overt third-person object, the 2PL.A reading holds. The portmanteau reading arises on a transitive predicate whose agent is a locally tracked first-person participant. Ainu discourse tracks participants across turns through the bound indexes and does not regularly deploy independent pronouns for reference maintenance; the free forms eani (2SG) and ecioka (2PL) add emphasis or mark contrast rather than supplying a referent from scratch Nakagawa (2024: 163–164, 250–251); Tamura (1971: 3–5).

The 2→1 configuration presents an asymmetry in Saru and Chitose. Where other Hokkaido dialects form 2SG→1SG by combining a second-person agent index with the first-person object en=, Saru uses bare en= alone, suppressing the expected *e=en=; Chitose extends this to 2PL→1SG, making *eci=en= ungrammatical in that variety as well Nakagawa (2024: 170, 173); Satō (2008: 146–147). The full 2→1 paradigm and its dialect variation are developed in Chapter 63 (First- and Second-Person Singular Affixes (ku=/en=, e=/e=)).

65.5 Plural marking and eci=

The 2PL value carried by eci= is participant-number indexing and is independent of verbal number. Hokkaido Ainu expresses verbal plurality through three further devices: suppletive stem alternations such as arpa / paye 'go', a root-attaching suffix -pa, and — in Saru, Chitose, and Ishikari — an outer plural auxiliary that follows the fully person-inflected verb Nakagawa (2024: 140–159); Bugaeva (2012: 471, 481); Sakaguchi (2024: 12). Each device occupies a distinct structural position and can co-occur with eci=.

Nakagawa's minimal pair illustrates the ordering diagnostic for the outer auxiliary versus the stem suffix: iki=an pa has the outer pa following the fourth-person suffix, while iki-pa=an has the stem suffix -pa inside the person marker Nakagawa (2024: 158). Sakaguchi formalises the criterion — a marker that attaches to the fully person-inflected form is a clitic rather than an affix — for Sakhalin Ainu; the most directly relevant Hokkaido evidence is the Saru/Chitose/Ishikari outer pa Sakaguchi (2024: 77–85, 163) ‹contested›. Person–number agreement and the selection of plural stems are treated in Chapter 70 (Person–Number Interactions and Plural Agreement).

65.6 Ijäs's learner grammar and the reference paradigm

The online learner grammar by Ijäs introduces e= in Lesson 2 as the second-person singular index on intransitive verbs; the plural counterpart is deferred Ijäs (2023). Lesson 5 then presents eci= as the marker for a first-person singular agent acting on a second-person singular object, and e= as the second-person singular object form with a third-person agent Ijäs (2023). Her pedagogical scope covers one number combination of the portmanteau; the reference sources extend eci= to all four first-to-second-person subject/object number combinations and additionally treat it as the full 2PL index across A, S, and O ‹consensus›.

Ijäs notes that second-person neutrality creates an interpretive ambiguity: a predicate carrying e= alongside a third-person participant can be read with the addressee as either agent or object unless additional context fixes the role Ijäs (2023). The observation matches the structural picture: predicate valence and the state of participant tracking supply what the person index alone leaves open.

65.7 Notation

This grammar writes the personal indexes with =, including e= and eci=. The symbol is a house convention for the personal-index boundary and makes no claim about morphological status. Nakagawa writes all person markers with = for convenience, explicitly noting that the symbol is unrelated to phonological or syllabic structure Nakagawa (2024: 49). Bugaeva assigns graduated status on prosodic and separability grounds: eci= is clitic-like — inseparable from the stem and not shifting the accent kernel — while ku=, ci=, e=, en=, un=, and i= are full prefixes that do shift it Bugaeva (2012: 472–473) ‹contested›. Ijäs writes e- and eci- with a hyphen and notes that equal signs are also in common use Ijäs (2023); the forms in this chapter are normalized accordingly. The morphological boundary status of the Hokkaido personal indexes is treated in Chapter 69 (The Personal-Affix Template: Position Classes and Affix Ordering).