Back matterAbbreviations and conventions
Interlinear glossing
Examples align an Ainu expression with grammatical glosses and a translation. A hyphen separates
analyzed morphemes. An equals sign separates person markers in the grammar's normalized
notation; it does not settle whether they are affixes or clitics. A period joins gloss elements
corresponding to one Ainu element, as in exist.SG or elder.sister.
Source spellings can retain different conventions. Citations and notes identify published examples and their provenance; constructed illustrations are labelled. Dialect tags appear where supplied, and an absent tag leaves the dialect unspecified. Some example words link to an external dictionary for lookup.
An asterisk marks an unacceptable form in grammatical discussion or a reconstructed form in historical discussion. A question mark indicates a doubtful judgment or interpretation. See the full notation guide for the tier structure and differences between source labels.
Gloss abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | first person |
| 1PL | first person plural |
| 1SG | first person singular |
| 2 | second person |
| 2PL | second person plural |
| 2SG | second person singular |
| 3 | third person |
| 3PL | third person plural |
| 3SG | third person singular |
| 4 | fourth (indefinite/logophoric) person |
| A | agent-like argument of a transitive verb |
| ABL | ablative (source case) |
| ADD | additive (‘also’) |
| ADM | admonitive (‘lest’) |
| ADV | adverbial(izer) |
| ALLAT | allative |
| ANAPH | anaphoric (discourse-tracking) |
| ANTIC | anticausative |
| ANTIP | antipassive |
| APPL | applicative |
| ASS | associative plural |
| ATTR | attributive |
| AUTOC | autocausative |
| CAUS | causative |
| CL | classifier (numeral counter suffix) |
| COMIT | comitative |
| COMP | complementizer |
| CONC | concessive (‘even if, although’) |
| COND | conditional |
| CONJ | conjunctive (clause-linking) particle |
| COP | copula |
| DEL | deliberative |
| DEM | demonstrative |
| DES | desiderative |
| DIM | diminutive |
| DIR | direct (as in CAUS.DIR, direct causative) |
| DISJ | disjunctive (or-coordinating particle) |
| DIST | distal |
| EMPH | emphatic |
| EP | epenthetic segment |
| EVID | evidential |
| EXCL | exclusive |
| FIN | final (sentence-final) particle |
| FOC | focus |
| GEN | genitive (adnominal/of-relation) |
| HORT | hortative |
| HUM | human (in classifiers) |
| IMP | imperative |
| INCL | inclusive |
| INDEF | indefinite |
| INFR | inferential evidential |
| INS | instrumental |
| INT | intensifier |
| INTERJ | interjection |
| INTR | intransitive |
| IPFV | imperfective |
| ITR | iterative |
| LEX | lexical / lexicalized (as in CAUS.LEX, lexical causative) |
| LOC | locative |
| METR | metrical material |
| MID | middle (voice) |
| MIR | mirative |
| NEG | negative |
| NMLZ | nominalizer/nominalization |
| O | object (patient-like argument of a transitive verb) |
| OPT | optative |
| ORD | ordinal |
| PASS | passive |
| PERL | perlative (through, along an area) |
| PERS | personal (evidential of personal knowledge) |
| PFV | perfective |
| PL | plural |
| POL | polite |
| POSS | possessive (the “belonging” form of nouns) |
| PRF | perfect |
| PROG | progressive |
| PROH | prohibitive |
| PROX | proximal |
| PST | past |
| PURP | purposive |
| Q | question particle |
| QUOT | quotative |
| REC | recent |
| RECP | reciprocal |
| RED | reduplication |
| REFL | reflexive |
| REP | reportative evidential |
| RES | resultative |
| S | single argument of an intransitive verb |
| SG | singular |
| SOFT | softener (imperative-mitigating particle) |
| TOP | topic |
| TR | transitive |
| TRANSL | translative (as, become) |
| TRVZ | transitivizer |
| VBLZ | verbalizer |
Dialect tags
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| HK | Hokkaido (dialect not further specified) |
| ABU | Abuta |
| SAR | Saru |
| CHI | Chitose |
| ISH | Ishikari |
| TOK | Tokachi |
| HOR | Horobetsu |
| SHI | Shizunai |
| SAM | Samani |
| ASA | Asahikawa |
| YAK | Yakumo |
| SA | Sakhalin (cited for contrast) |
| KU | Kuril (cited for contrast) |
Other conventions
- Ainu forms are cited in the romanisation set out in the chapter on orthography; phonemic representations appear between slashes and phonetic ones in square brackets.
- In a combined person gloss,
>runs from A to O, as in1.A>2.O. - A section number attached to a source citation locates that source's section. Links to chapters and sections of this grammar open the corresponding discussion.