Knowledge base · Part XIX — Discourse and the Grammar of Oral Literature · this topic as a network

154. Honorific, Ritual, and Taboo Registers

How does the language encode honorific, ritual, and taboo registers in its grammar?

12 sentences from 20 sources · every sentence names the pages it rests on

In traditional Ainu belief, a deity rests on each individual's shoulder and determines their personality and destiny. (reported in Satō 2008: 242)

The honorific address system: fourth-person forms and the pronoun set

How does the language encode honorific address for second person?

In Sakhalin Ainu, nispa functions as an honorific title attached to the names of distinguished men. (Murasaki 2025: 61) Honorific expressions are reported to be rare in classical yukar and northern and eastern dialects, appearing consistently only in Hidaka and Iburi through prolonged contact with Japanese. (reported in Refsing 1986) Nominalized expressions are sometimes employed as honorific expressions even in everyday speech. (Satō 2008: 312)

Elegant kinship terms as register diagnostics

How are kinship terms differentiated between everyday and elegant registers?

a=onaha a=unuhu wakkauskamuy ne wa

4.A=poss.father 4.A=poss.mother water-deity COP CONJ

‘[My] father and mother were water-deities, and …’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

Prayer language: genre-conditioned lexical substitution

How does the language use different epithets for the fire deity in prayer versus epic?

In southwestern Hokkaido prayer register, the fire deity is addressed with the genre-specific honorific title mosir kor huci. (Endō 2022: 10.2) In the Sakhalin Ainu ceremonial prayer register, a distinct lexical stratum is preserved, such as using ape for 'fire' rather than the everyday unci. (Tangiku 2022: 9.3)

iresu kamuy, páse kamuy, k=onkami na

raise deity reverent deity 1SG.A=worship FIN

‘O raising-deity, O reverent-deity, I pray.’

Ainu Koraci 1991 · SAR

k=e-ko-onkami

1SG.A=APPL-APPL-worship

‘I reverently worship.’

Endō 2022 · HK

néno a=numke kuni arikiki utar opitta ramossi wano k=éyayrayke ruwe tapan na.

so 4.A=choose COMP work.hard people all heart ABL 1SG.A=be.grateful track DEM.PROX FIN

‘So I am grateful from the heart to everyone who worked hard so that [the landscape] would be chosen — this is a recognized fact.’

Ainu Koraci 1991 · SAR

Gendered ritual speech-acts

How are ritual speech-acts differentiated by the performer's gender?

hinna

INTERJ

‘(Thank you — said by a woman while performing raymik.)’

· constructed· SAR

hinna ki kane too hosippa

hinna do CONJ away return.PL

‘Expressing thanks (saying hinna), they went home all the way.’

Biratori Ainu oral literature 1969 · SHI

Taboo vocabulary: attested existence and the source gap

What special vocabulary is used in taboo contexts such as hunting and bear ceremonies?

Sakhalin Ainu possessed a vocabulary of about one hundred conventional taboo words used during hunting, sea voyages, and for conversational secrecy. (reported in Majewicz 2022: 4.4) Taboo words requiring lexical substitution when entering the mountains or going out to sea exist in Ainu. (Nakagawa 2024) In the Tokachi dialect, mountain taboo words replace ordinary village words with words of different meaning to avoid alerting mountain deities to marine things. (Nakagawa 2024: 531) In the Shari dialect, offshore taboo words substitute special terms for ordinary village words during sea mammal hunting. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 531) In the Shiraoi dialect, offshore taboo language replaces ordinary village words with specific avoidance terms. (Nakagawa 2024: 532) In eastern Hidaka offshore hunting taboo speech, 'rabbit' was referred to as kaykuma rather than isepo to avoid association with rough sea whitecaps. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 532)