Knowledge base · Part XXI — Language Contact and the Lexicon · this topic as a network

167. Synopsis of Lexical-Semantic Fields

How is the Ainu lexicon organized into semantic fields, and how do these fields interact with grammar and culture?

The word ʔarke means one of a pair of items. (Kirikae 1997: 11) The more general word for 'to work' is 'nepki', whereas 'monrayke' is mainly used in oral literature and frequently functions nominally. (Satō 2008: 196) túri is a pole used to navigate a boat, and boats are mainly operated with túri in places of normal depth, whereas assap 'oar' is used in deep places where the pole cannot reach the riverbed. (Satō 2008: 240) The phrase aynu osarkes is used as an insult meaning 'poor fellow / pauper'. (reported in Satō 2008: 293) The verb nise means 'to scoop (with a tool)'. (Satō 2008: 297) According to the speaker, itakkasi means 'to not listen to what someone says, to disobey'. (reported in Satō 2008: 300) The stem ruy alone means 'to be intense, to become intense'. (Satō 2008: 302) The verbs pan 'weak in taste / thin' and nupur 'strong in taste / thick' are also used in the sense of a god's spiritual power being weak or strong. (Satō 2008: 307) The phrase nupur kur literally means 'thick person', but is used with the meaning of 'a person with spiritual power, a person with divinatory ability'. (Satō 2008: 307) According to speakers, isoytak means to narrate what one has heard or seen. (reported in Satō 2008: 313) The verb satsatu means 'to dry', but it is used for food items such as meat, fish, and wild plants, and is not used when referring to hanging up laundry. (Satō 2008: 324) The verb satke 'to dry' can be used both when drying food and when hanging out laundry. (Satō 2008: 324) ramuriten means 'rejoice / be glad'. (Satō 2008: 350) eyaykopuntek (and ukoeyaykopuntek) also means 'rejoice', but it has fewer examples than ramuriten and is often used for rejoicing over receiving things or the arrival of game. (Satō 2008: 350) The verb etunne (or etune) means 'to hate it', 'not want to', 'be annoying', or 'to dislike it'. (Vovin 2022: 6.4)

Overview

What semantic fields structure the native Ainu lexicon, and which noun classes are obligatorily possessed?

The noun kamuy means 'god' or 'spirit'. (Bugaeva 2012: 462–463, Shibatani 1990: 4) The term 'áynu, literally 'person, man in general, human being', served across all regional Ainu groups as an endonym referring to members of the Ainu ethnic group. (Janhunen 2022: 2.2) The phrase 'áynu 'iták refers to the Ainu language. (Janhunen 2022: 2.2) In the Ainu language, the word aynu means 'person'. (Shibatani 1990) In Ainu, uni denotes a house as a place of habitat, whereas cise denotes a house as an actual physical building. (reported in Vovin 2022: 6.5)

Kinship terms

How do Ainu kinship terms encode sex, relative age, and obligatory possession?

Body-part terms

What possessive morphology do Ainu body-part nouns exhibit, and how do suffix forms alternate?

The noun kema 'leg, foot' is primarily used in reference to humans, whereas cikir is primarily used for non-humans such as crabs, spiders, horses, and utensils. (Satō 2008: 255) The verb nuwap refers to groaning in childbirth or from abdominal pain. (Satō 2008: 302)

Geographic vocabulary

Which geographic terms are most frequent and culturally salient in the Ainu lexicon?

The phrase 'áynu mo-sír means 'Ainu land' and refers to the Ainu ethnic territory. (Janhunen 2022: 2.2) The Ainu word sar means 'field of reeds'. (Ōno 2022: 12.8) In modern Ainu dialects, the noun kotan means 'village, settlement'. (Vovin 2022: 6.4)

Flora and the kina/mun distinction

How does the kina/mun distinction organize Ainu plant vocabulary into useful versus noxious categories?

The transitive verb kar is used with the meaning 'to gather or pick edible wild plants' in addition to 'to make'. (Satō 2008: 95, 108) Ainu strictly differentiates between two types of grass: kina 'edible grass' and mun 'inedible grass'. (Bugaeva 2022: 20.6) The noun 'epuyke' generally means 'flower', but depending on context it can also refer to a 'bud' or 'fruit'. (Satō 2008: 19) The noun ipe usually refers to the edible fruit or root part of a plant, and its use for animal meat is rare. (Satō 2008: 324)

Fauna

What grammatical and cultural role does the bear term play in Ainu fauna vocabulary?

The noun phrase 'kim un kamuy' literally means 'god in the mountain', but usually refers to a bear. (Satō 2008: 18) The word 'kamuy' means 'god', but is also frequently used alone to refer to a bear. (Satō 2008: 18) The word ocakaype refers, according to the consultant, to a salmon with a thin tail. (reported in Satō 2008: 292) The word kamuy is a generic term for animals and is also used to designate bears. (Shibatani 1990: 4) In Hokkaido Ainu, any hairless animal specimen was designated as tontone 'like a tonto'. (reported in Shiraishi & Tangiku 2022: 7.3) Saru Ainu riká means 'whale meat'. (Vovin 2022: 6.1) In Kuril Ainu materials, rika is recorded with the meanings 'whale meat' and 'whale'. (reported in Vovin 2022: 6.1) Sakhalin Ainu has a form 'irika tentatively glossed as 'dolphin'. (reported in Vovin 2022: 6.1) In Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu, rika means 'white fat under the skin of a whale'. (reported in Vovin 2022: 6.1) In the Sōya dialect of Hokkaido Ainu, rika means 'white fat under the skin of a whale'. (reported in Vovin 2022: 6.1)

Weather and natural-phenomenon vocabulary

How does Ainu encode weather phenomena, and what is the example of noun incorporation with a natural-phenomenon subject?

Although speakers translate maw as 'wind', in actual usage it often corresponds to Japanese 'kimochi, kehai, chōkō' (omen, indication, sign, presence). (Satō 2008: 248)

Spatial deixis and locative nouns

How do demonstratives, locative nouns, and postpositions interact in Ainu spatial deixis?