Chapter 114Imperative and Prohibitive (Directive Mood)

114.1 Overview: the directive mood

The directive mood of Hokkaido Ainu distinguishes singular from plural or polite addressees, positive from negative directives, and direct from softened commands through a small set of formally separable constructions. The simplest directive is the bare verb with no second-person subject prefix — the singular imperative. The final particle yan marks the plural or polite imperative; number-sensitive verbs require the plural stem alongside it. The adverbial particle hani softens the command into a polite reminder, and the preverbal adverb iteki (and its dialect equivalents) converts any imperative into a prohibitive Nakagawa (2024: 421–426); Satō (2008: 72–73); Ijäs (2023).

The hortative particles ro, rok, and no, which build inclusive 'let us' directives on the fourth-person verb, are treated in Chapter 115 (Hortative, Optative, and Cohortative). The detailed relationship of the prohibitive to sentential negation, its apprehensive extension, and its position in prohibitive typology are developed in Chapter 130 (The Prohibitive Subsystem: iteki and Negative Directives). The overview of how directive mood fits within the broader TAM and clause architecture is in Chapter 108 (Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Modality: Overview).

114.2 The bare-stem singular imperative

A directive to a single addressee is the bare verb with no second-person subject prefix. Object prefixes — en= (1sg.o), un= (1pl.o), i= (4.o) — remain on the verb; only the subject prefix is suppressed Nakagawa (2024: 421–422). The surface form is therefore identical to a third-person or subjectless clause and receives its directive reading from context and intonation.

Adding a second-person subject prefix to an imperative verb is ungrammatical ‹consensus› Ijäs (2023). A community exchange confirms the restriction: the bare imperative of un=epunkine 'guard [us]' carries only the beneficiary object prefix un= and no subject marker; a form e=un=epunkine or a=un=epunkine is ungrammatical as an imperative (siljamimimii, aynu-corpora Discord, 2024-11-17) aynu-corpora Discord (2023–2026) ‹corpus-confirmed›.

Ishikari alone attaches a sentence-final particle ya to signal the singular imperative, a form that the southern and central dialects lack Nakagawa (2024: 422).

114.3 The plural and polite imperative: yan

A directive addressed to multiple persons or framed politely takes the final particle yan. For verbs that distinguish a singular from a plural stem — intransitives such as hosipi ‘return (SG)’ / hosippa ‘return (PL)’ and ek ‘come (SG)’ / arki ‘come (PL)’ — the plural stem is obligatory and yan cannot be dropped Nakagawa (2024: 422).

The particle yan is homophonous with the intransitive motion verb yan ‘go ashore, come up from water’. A community discussion proposes that the imperative particle grammaticalized from this motion verb — a path typologically paralleled by English come on and Mandarin directional verbs in imperative idioms (antitwilight, aynu-corpora Discord, 2024-11-18) aynu-corpora Discord (2023–2026) ‹speculative›. The grammars list the motion verb and the final particle as separate entries without deriving one from the other Nakagawa (2024: 422).

When hani follows yan, the two regularly fuse to yanani Nakagawa (2024: 422–423).

114.4 Softeners and benefactive requests: hani and wa kore

The particle hani (variant ani) follows the imperative verb, or the particle yan, and softens the directive into a polite reminder Nakagawa (2024: 422–423).

A community discussion proposes that hani is etymologically related to the motion verb hanke ‘come near, approach’, by a grammaticalization path parallel to the one proposed for yan (antitwilight, aynu-corpora Discord, 2024-11-18) aynu-corpora Discord (2023–2026) ‹speculative›.

The pair verb wa kore ‘do for (someone)’ adds a benefactive reading. In this pattern the imperative verb is followed by the sequential particle wa and the verb kore 'give / do-for', which takes an object prefix identifying the beneficiary: en=kore 'do it for me', un=kore 'do it for us' Nakagawa (2024: 423, 455).

114.5 The prohibitive: iteki and its dialect variants

A prohibitive directive places a preverbal adverb before the bare-stem verb. The most widespread form in the Saru corpus is iteki, found in Saru, Chitose, Horobetsu, and Abuta; other Hokkaido dialects use parallel adverbs Nakagawa (2024: 424).

iteki is not restricted to bare imperatives: it also precedes indirect command forms such as kusu ne na and nankor na, and the combination iteki … no V expresses 'don't do X; instead do V' Nakagawa (2024: 425). The alternative adverbs ikiya, ika, and inkian take a person-marked, non-imperative verb rather than a bare stem ‹consensus› Nakagawa (2024: 425–426).

A community analysis proposes a structural distinction between iteki and ikiya: ikiya is an ordinary adverb compatible with subject marking on the following verb (ikiya e=honi arka na 'be careful of [getting] a bellyache'), whereas iteki specifically suppresses the subject prefix of the following verb, producing the bare imperative shape (nukopoli, aynu-corpora Discord, 2025-12-03) aynu-corpora Discord (2023–2026) ‹contested›. The proposal awaits systematic corpus testing.

On the Ishikari variant ecik(k)i, a community observation notes a possible metathesis path (*iteki > etiki > eciki; nukopoli, aynu-corpora Discord, 2023-12-24) aynu-corpora Discord (2023–2026) ‹speculative›. Nakagawa treats the dialect forms as synchronic equivalents without committing to a derivational order Nakagawa (2024: 424).

The prohibitive's relationship to the standard sentential negation somo, its asymmetric properties across clause types, and its apprehensive extension are developed in Chapter 130 (The Prohibitive Subsystem: iteki and Negative Directives).

114.6 Indirect and mitigated directives

A family of constructions with person-marked verbs distributes directive force along a scale from advice and permission to near-command. All carry the second-person subject prefix, which distinguishes them formally from the bare-stem imperative Nakagawa (2024: 423–424); Ijäs (2023).

The deontic values encoded by these constructions — obligation, expectation, and permission — are treated systematically in Chapter 118 (Deontic Necessity and Obligation (kuni ne, kus ne)).

114.7 Person marking in the directive clause

The person-marking properties of the directive system converge on a single fact: the bare imperative — both singular and plural/polite — suppresses the second-person subject prefix. In declarative clauses the second-person singular agent and single-argument subject each take the prefix e=; a verb without that prefix occupies the same slot as a subjectless or third-person construction. The bare imperative occupies that slot, and the addressee is identified pragmatically. Any object prefix that the argument structure requires remains on the verb Nakagawa (2024: 421–423). The full paradigm of subject and object prefixes is set out in Chapter 62 (Architecture of the Personal-Affix System: The Four Persons and the S/A/O Paradigms).

The plural and polite particle yan does not restore the subject prefix: it marks plurality or politeness through the particle alone, leaving the verb stem prefix-free. The indirect-directive constructions — yak pirka, nankor na, and their kin — carry the second-person subject prefix as their own diagnostic property, setting them formally apart from the direct imperative and connecting them to the deontic modality system of Chapter 118 (Deontic Necessity and Obligation (kuni ne, kus ne)) Nakagawa (2024: 423–424); Ijäs (2023) ‹consensus›.