Chapter 163Japanese Loans and Their Adaptation

163.1 Recognizing a borrowing

Japanese is a major identified source of borrowed vocabulary in Southern Hokkaido Ainu. Bugaeva lists sippo ‘salt’, umma ‘horse’, tuki ‘sake cup’, and kampi ‘paper’, comparing Japanese shio, uma, saka-zuki, kami Bugaeva (2012: 498, §15.5). The identification depends on historical and lexical comparison; length or unfamiliar structure alone is insufficient.

Nakagawa observes that many Ainu roots are one or two syllables, while longer independent forms often involve derivation, compounding, or borrowing. He includes tampaku ‘tobacco’ among loans. The alternatives in this account prevent syllable count from becoming an automatic test of origin Nakagawa (2024: 47, §1.3.3).

163.2 Adaptation and the donor pronunciation

A borrowed word reflects the pronunciation available at the time and place of contact. Alonso compares Saru cikenki ‘matches’ with Japanese tsukegi, and antuki ‘adzuki beans’ with azuki. His discussion considers regional and older Japanese features, including prenasalized voiced consonants Alonso de la Fuente (2022: §1).

Satō's Chitose commentary makes the same historical distinction for sirokane ‘silver’ and konkane ‘gold’. He connects the first with an older unvoiced Japanese shirokane, and discusses nasal insertion in the second alongside voiced kogane Satō (2008: 296, 301).

The unexplained consonant in pisakku is a useful limit on analysis: identifying Japanese hishaku as the likely source does not explain every segment automatically. A set of loans can include different periods, donor dialects, and degrees of accommodation Satō (2008: 296).

163.3 Historical dating and uncertain comparisons

Janhunen uses forms including sippo and pasuy in a proposed chronology of Japanese contact. This is a historical argument whose assumptions must be evaluated with the forms themselves Janhunen (2022: §3(3c)). Satō notes that pasuy lacks the Old Japanese vowel-class diagnostic discussed for kamuy. He also treats similarities such as sake as comparative questions without settling every direction of transmission Satō (2008: 8, §1.6).

A proposed borrowing, its direction, and its date are consequently separate claims. Their implications for deeper comparison are discussed in Chapter 166 (Distant Comparison and Early Contact).

163.4 Borrowing alongside new word formation

Published speech can retain recognizably Japanese material. Shibatani reproduces an autobiographical passage from Sunasawa Kura containing forms such as gakko ‘school’ and takenoko ‘bamboo shoots’ Shibatani (1990: 86). Such a passage documents that speaker's usage; it does not supply a loan-frequency estimate for every register.

Borrowing also coexists with compound and derived expressions. Ōno describes Asahikawa tunas-kampi ‘telegram’, literally ‘fast paper’, and the telephone expression a-e-y-nu-p. His analysis relates the latter to hearing voices or sounds. He discusses these alongside more recent terminology in language revitalization Ōno (2022: §8.9). These examples show continued lexical adaptation across different periods and regions.