Knowledge base · Part XIX — Discourse and the Grammar of Oral Literature · this topic as a network
149. The Oral-Literature Genre System and Its Grammatical Signatures
How does the language distinguish oral narrative genres through grammatical features?
In seated songs, singing without instruments or dancing is called upopo in Hokkaido and heciri in Sakhalin, performed mainly by women on ritual occasions. (Endō 2022: 10.2) A distinctive round-singing form used in seated songs is called ukouk, literally meaning 'to take together'. (Endō 2022: 10.2) Dance songs are designated upopo in northern Hokkaido, horippa in Saru and Hidaka, rimse in Iburi, and heciri in Sakhalin. (Endō 2022: 10.2) Impromptu lyrical songs are called yaysama in the upper reaches of the Saru River, yaysamanena in the lower reaches of the Saru River, and elsewhere yaykatekar or iyohay(o)cis. (Endō 2022: 10.2) Lullabies are called iyonruyka in the lower reaches of the Saru River and iyonnokka in the upper reaches of the Saru River. (Endō 2022: 10.2) In lullabies, an apical trill sound transcribed as rr is inserted as a soothing device, termed hororse in Ainu. (Endō 2022: 10.2) The language of negotiation is chanted at a caranke, a formal dispute-resolution ritual conducted exclusively by adult males. (Endō 2022: 10.2) The expression iresu huci 'goddess of fire' occurs frequently only in prayer verse when referring to the fire goddess. (reported in Endō 2022: 10.3) In Noboribetsu, a blindman's buff / counting-out game song is attested with the lyrics 'tanto sirpirka / pirka pirka / inan kur pirka / nunke kusu ne'. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 541) Incantations (short prayers to kamuy for protection) can be recited by women and do not require formal rituals such as shaving inaw or offering sake. (Nakagawa 2024: 542) In Saru, when dust gets into one's eye, the incantation 'pon pisakko mom mom/ pon ontaro mom mom' is recited, likening the dust to a ladle and a barrel to be washed away with tears. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 542) In Saru, when fetching water at night, one recites 'wakka mos mos/ wakka mos mos/ wakka k=ahupkar na/ kamuy wakka k=ahupkar na' to wake the sleeping water before drawing it. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 543) During a solar eclipse, an incantation such as 'cup kamuy ho! / e=ray na ho! / yaynupa ho!' is chanted while scattering water toward the sun from a patci bowl and beating boards to revive the fainting sun god. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 543) In Chitose, when someone is poisoned by overeating ikema root, the incantation 'ikema tampu/ he tampu/ he mawe/ he asin' is recited while supporting the patient from both sides. (Nakagawa 2024: 543) Formal greetings when welcoming guests from afar are called uerankarap itak or yaykurekarpa itak. (Nakagawa 2024: 543) The discourse of debate or dispute is called caranke itak, in which disputing parties recite rhythmic verse citing precedents to argue their case. (Nakagawa 2024: 544) The funeral discourse addressed to the deceased is called ioytakkote itak. (Nakagawa 2024: 544) Ritual prayers addressed to kamuy are called inonnoytak in Ainu and are composed in metered verse, normally recited by men. (Nakagawa 2024: 545) Memorial services for ancestral spirits are called by various regional terms including icarpa, sinnurappa, sinurappa, and iare. (Nakagawa 2024: 545) In this grammar, following Chiri, "uta" (songs) are defined not as everything with a melody, but as vocal performances that use various techniques such as melisma, falsetto, glottal stops, and aspiration to vary the voice, where producing such musical voice itself is enjoyed. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 546) Songs (uta) are broadly divided into step-dance songs (踏舞歌), work songs (労働歌), lullabies (子守歌), lyrical songs (叙情歌), sitting songs (座り歌), dancing songs (踊り歌), and throat-sounding songs (喉鳴らし歌). (Nakagawa 2024: 546) The step dance performed by men at drinking feasts is called tapkar, and the song alone is called sakehaw. (Nakagawa 2024: 547) In Western Hokkaido, tapkar songs are performed with a special strained throat vocalization without lyrics, consisting solely of meaningless vocal sounds. (Nakagawa 2024: 547) When a woman follows behind a man during tapkar and gives shouts like 'hacoo', it is called ietapkar. (Nakagawa 2024: 547) According to Chiri (1955a), in central, eastern, and northern Hokkaido, tapkar is performed by groups of several men and women, sometimes accompanied by lyrics, which is called tapkar sinotca. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 547) Lullabies are called ihunke or ihumke in many regions, but in Saru and Chitose this term is avoided and called ionnotka or ionruyka, because in those regions ihumke is said to mean 'cast a curse'. (Nakagawa 2024: 547) Many lullabies insert a rolled tongue-tip vibrating sound called hororse, and some are accompanied by refrain phrases such as hatahatahataho. (Nakagawa 2024: 547) Lyrical songs called yaysama are named after the vocable yaysamanena with which they begin or which is repeated throughout, though various other vocables such as horennahore or ayororope may also be used. (Nakagawa 2024: 548) iyohaycis or iyohay'ocis, translated as 'lament song' and mainly themed on broken love, is characterized by a distinctive melody where the pitch rises sharply at places, and can be considered a type of yaysama since it often begins with yaysamanena. (Nakagawa 2024: 548) yaykatekar (or yaykatekara in Sakhalin) is said to be a love song, though recorded examples are few and details remain unclear. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 548) Sitting songs are called upopo throughout Hokkaido and heciri in Sakhalin; in Sakhalin and Eastern Hokkaido they are not terminologically distinguished from dancing songs, but when distinguished in Eastern Hokkaido, they are called rok upopo ('sitting upopo'). (Nakagawa 2024: 548) In sitting songs, several women sit surrounding the lid of a lacquer vessel called sintoko and beat the lid to keep rhythm while singing. (Nakagawa 2024: 548) kannaruyno means 'again' according to the speaker, but so far has only been attested in oral literature. (Satō 2008: 301)
The genre system: parameters and macro-categories
What are the macro-categories of oral activity and their communicative purposes?
Unlike incantations or tales, Ainu songs do not primarily aim to convey propositional content and do not necessarily require an audience. (Nakagawa 2024: 550) Songs are distinguished from word games and incantations by their reliance on demanding vocal techniques to enjoy voice production itself rather than the words. (Nakagawa 2024: 551) Elegant language (atomte-itak, literally 'decorated language') contrasts as a distinct register with everyday language (yayan-itak, literally 'normal language'). (reported in Endō 2022: 10.3) Kindaichi lists five verse genres in which elegant language is used: uwerankarap itak (words of greeting), kamui nomi itak / inonno itak (words of prayer), ukewehomshu itak (words of incantation), charanke itak (words for negotiation), and yukar (epic poetry). (reported in Endō 2022: 10.3) Ainu oral literature comprises a wide spectrum of oral genres, including elaborate poetic epics, prose tales, fairy tales, legends, songs, anecdotes, jokes, and riddles. (Majewicz 2022: 4.6) Singing styles of sitting songs include unison (uopuk), responsorial singing where a soloist leads and the rest follow (iekay), and canon/round singing where parts enter staggered (ukouk). (Nakagawa 2024: 549) In Sakhalin there is a vocal game called rekuhkara where two people face each other with hands formed into tubes against each other's mouths, producing and enjoying novel resonating sounds without lyrics. (Nakagawa 2024: 550) In Tokachi, there is a vocal song practiced without lyrics to 'sound the throat' (kuttomorette) as training in basic singing skills such as melisma, voice register shifts, and glottal stops required for songs like upopo. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 550) Except for wordplay and some songs, Ainu oral literature is performed improvisationally on the spot rather than reproduced through verbatim rote memorization. (Nakagawa 2024: 605) Classical forms of speech that have disappeared from colloquial Ainu are preserved in orally transmitted epics, songs, and stories. (Refsing 1986: 61) Besides yukar, there exist songs and various types of stories told in colloquial Ainu, most of which are of a didactic nature. (Refsing 1986: 61) No Ainu religious ceremony was performed without the recitation of epics or chants. (Refsing 1986: 61) Conflicts between villagers or territorial groups were settled by formal oral disputes called caranke, in which opponents chanted or uttered arguments in poetic phrasing. (Refsing 1986) Ainu oral literature is broadly divided into three genres: heroic epic, divine songs (kamuy yukar), and folktales (uwepeker). (Satō 2004) The word isoitak is frequently used at the end of oral literature in the formulaic expression 'so-and-so told/narrated that...'. (Satō 2004) The expression pe ne hike 'though it was the case that' is routinely used at the beginning of oral literature. (Satō 2008: 323) tu pu epuni, re pu epuni is a formulaic expression in oral literature representing being skilled at farmwork and storing an abundant harvest. (Satō 2008: 351)
Dialect-area variation in genre vocabulary
How does genre vocabulary vary across dialect areas?
Prose tales are called uepeker in southwestern Hokkaido, tuytak in northeastern Hokkaido, isoytakki in Samani, and ucaskuma or tuytah in Sakhalin. (Endō 2022: 10.2, Nakagawa 2024: 553) Divine epics are called kamuy yukar in western and southwestern Hokkaido, oyna in eastern Hokkaido and Sakhalin, menoko yukar in the Saru River basin, and tuytak in Samani and Soya. (Endō 2022: 10.2, Nakagawa 2024: 556) Heroic epics are designated yukar in western and southwestern Hokkaido, sakorpe in eastern Hokkaido, hawki in Sakhalin, and yayerap or yaerap in Samani and Horobetsu. (Endō 2022: 10.2, Nakagawa 2024: 557) In Sakhalin, first-person prose tales are termed ucaskoma, whereas third-person prose tales are termed tuytah. (Endō 2022: 10.2) The heroic epic protagonist is a youth named Poy-ya-un-pe or Pon Sinutapka-un-kur in Saru, Pon Otasam-un-kur or Pon Otasut-un-kur in eastern Hokkaido, and Pon Otasut-un-kuh in Sakhalin. (Endō 2022: 10.2) In eastern Hokkaido (Kushiro, Shiranuka, Bihoro), both dancing and seated songs are sung by turns or in chorus rather than as round singing, exhibiting no singing-style difference between the two song categories. (reported in Endō 2022: 10.2) Folktales are termed tuytah in Sakhalin Ainu. (Murasaki 2025: 114) Legends and tales of human affairs are termed ucaskuma in Sakhalin Ainu. (Murasaki 2025: 114) Divine mythic songs are termed oyna in Sakhalin Ainu. (Murasaki 2025: 114) Heroic songs/narratives are termed yuukara in Sakhalin Ainu. (Murasaki 2025: 114) Sakhalin Ainu has characteristics considerably different from Hokkaido in the genres, forms, performance, and content of its oral literature. (Murasaki 2025: 115) In the Samani dialect, the oral epic genre corresponding to the yukar recorded from Oda Steno in Shizunai is designated as yayerap (or yaerap in Nakagawa's transcription). (Nakagawa 2024: 98) The term utaskar is translated as 'breath contest' (ikikurabe) by Chiri (1937b) in the Horobetsu dialect, consisting of semantically obscure expressions recited in a competitive or rapid manner. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 535) In Chitose, there is a play song sung while grabbing the nape of a young Eurasian jay, reciting 'e=kotanu un tapkar ki ki. sapo tapkar ki ki.' ('Dance your village's dance! Dance elder sister's dance!'). (Nakagawa 2024: 540) In Chitose, a boat-rowing game is accompanied by singing 'honkan cippo hoye kiriri cippo hoye' and then 'cip hokus cip hokus...'. (Nakagawa 2024: 540) While sitting songs in most parts of Hokkaido are mainly sung in canon (ukouk), in Eastern Hokkaido (Kushiro, Shiranuka, Bihoro) they are invariably sung in responsorial (iekay) or unison (uopuk) fashion. (Nakagawa 2024: 549) Dancing songs are widely called rimse, or upopo/heciri in Eastern Hokkaido and Sakhalin, while in Saru and Chitose they are called horippa, a term avoided in other regions where it denotes the inauspicious stomping march called niwenhorippa. (Nakagawa 2024: 549) In Hokkaido there is no dancing while singing in canon (ukouk), and in regions where rimse (horippa) is distinguished from upopo, dancing songs are mainly sung in unison (uopuk). (Nakagawa 2024: 550) Tales of the 'neighboring old man' type corresponding to Hokkaido Pananpe tales are told in Sakhalin under the names Pankankuh ('downstream person') and Penkankuh ('upstream person'). (Nakagawa 2024: 556) Across Sakhalin, eastern Hokkaido, and the Ishikari River basin, the word oyna is used to designate god-songs (kamuy yukar), and sacred legends are not distinguished by name from god-songs in those regions. (Nakagawa 2024: 560) Sacred legends (oyna) are established as a distinct genre separate from god-songs only in regions where god-songs are called kamuyyukar. (Nakagawa 2024: 560) Even in regions where god-songs are called kamuyyukar, sacred legends (oyna) are not attested in the upper Saru River basin or Chitose. (Nakagawa 2024: 560) Sacred legends (oyna) as a distinct genre are clearly recorded only in the coastal area from Iburi to Hidaka. (Nakagawa 2024: 561) In the Chitose dialect, oral literature is divided into major genres including heroic epic (yúkar), god song (kamuyyukar), prose tale (uwepeker), and irupaye, differentiated by the presence or absence of melody, a refrain (sákehe), beating time with a repni, and length. (Satō 2008: 259)
The heroic epic: yukar and sakorpe
What formal features define the heroic epic?
Heroic epics are designated by the general term yukar (or yukara) in Ainu. (Majewicz 2022: 4.1, Ōno 2022: 12.3; Ōno 2022: 12.4) Heroic epics have an unmelodic prose-like recitation style termed rupaye or irupaye that departs from standard metrical constraints. (Nakagawa 2024: 558, 575) During the narration of heroic epics, both the narrator and listener beat the hearth rim with a repni stick to maintain the rhythm, and the listener frequently adds hetce interjections. (Endō 2022: 10.2) In Chitose, heroic epic content told in prose rather than verse is termed irupaye, which was considered acceptable for women to narrate. (Endō 2022: 10.2) The word kamuy is used as an adnominal modifier meaning 'splendid' in heroic epics, but is not used this way in prayer verse. (reported in Endō 2022: 10.3) Nikolai Nevskiy's archive contains a substantial collection of Ainu menoko-jukara narratives recorded in Japanese or Russian translation. (reported in Majewicz 2022: 4.10) In heroic epics transmitted in the Saru and Iburi regions, a character named Iyoci un kur frequently appears as an ally of the protagonist Poyyaunpe, where Iyoci is said to refer to modern Yoichi. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 104) The phrase honkan cippo is also sung as honkaran cippo by some, likely originating etymologically from pon kaya un cippo 'small boat with a small sail'. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 541) In reciting heroic epics, the teller beats the hearth frame (fuchi) with a baton called repni to keep time. (Nakagawa 2024: 557) During the performance of heroic epics, listeners also hold a repni and strike time with the narrator while shouting hetce (interjections). (Nakagawa 2024: 558) The wooden beat-stick repni used in heroic epic recitation is cut and made ad hoc on the spot and, after the performance, is sent off to the spirit realm at the nusa altar rather than kept permanently. (Nakagawa 2024: 558) In heroic epics, the number of recorded tales with male protagonists is overwhelmingly greater than those with female protagonists. (Nakagawa 2024: 558) In heroic epics, the battle scenes are typically narrated elaborately and at great length, forming the climactic structural units of the story. (Nakagawa 2024: 558) In female-protagonist heroic epics, more weight is placed on male-female relationships than on combat, and female protagonists are often depicted as ordinary mortals without superhuman powers. (Nakagawa 2024: 559) Reports from various regions record that reciting heroic epics with a melody was traditionally restricted to men. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 559) In Chitose, according to Nabe Shirasawa, there were no women who recited yukar with a melody because of social criticism that women should not perform men's yukar. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 559) The regions where women are confirmed to have actively transmitted heroic epics from an early period are Horobetsu, the lower Saru River basin, and Shizunai, forming a continuous coastal area from Iburi to Hidaka. (Nakagawa 2024: 560) Unlike kamuy yukar, heroic epics (yukar) have no fixed melody per tale and no sakehe refrain; each storyteller uses their own melody, and the entire text is sung in lines conforming to metrical principles. (Nakagawa 2024: 575) Narrating an epic with a melody is termed sakoye or sakekoye, literally meaning 'to tell with a melody (sa)'. (Nakagawa 2024: 576) Prose-style recitation of heroic epics without a melody is called yukanrupaye (< yukar-rupaye) in Saru and yukar irupaye in Chitose. (Nakagawa 2024: 577) In yukanrupaye, the poetic meter itself often breaks down into expressions close to prose tales, and the story development itself can also become prose-like rather than merely reciting the epic text without a melody. (Nakagawa 2024: 577) Recorded heroic epic texts sung with a melody (sakoye) include performances by both male and female narrators, but texts recited in the rupaye style are limited to female narrators. (Nakagawa 2024: 578) The core of the Ainu literary tradition consists of yukar, or hero epics. (Refsing 1986: 61) Yukar are recited in a melodious voice while rhythm is marked by beating wood against the rim of the fireplace. (Refsing 1986: 61) According to Shirasawa, heroic epics (yúkar) were traditionally strictly restricted to male narrators and forbidden to women, whereas irupaye, kamuyyukar, and uwepeker could be narrated by women. (reported in Satō 2008: 259) Verse forms of oral literature are generally called yukar in Ainu. (Shibatani 1990: 4)
The divine epic: kamuy yukar, the sakehe refrain, and oyna
What distinguishes the divine epic from the heroic epic in structure and performance?
The kamuy yukar (divine epic) genre contains melody, meter, and a refrain (sakehe). (Bugaeva 2022: 20.1) In southwestern Hokkaido, poetic narratives about culture heroes without sakehe refrains are called oyna (sacred biographies). (Endō 2022: 10.2) Prototypically, a kamuy is the main narrator and protagonist of a kamuy yukar, including land animals, birds, aquatic animals, insects, plants, natural phenomena, man-made objects, and monsters. (Nakagawa 2024: 556) Sacred legends (oyna) do not have a uniform delivery form, as some are recited like heroic epics while others are recited like god-songs. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 561) Sacred legends (oyna) are defined not by performance format but by content, featuring culture heroes such as Aynurakkur, Aeoynakamuy, or Okikurmi as their primary narrator. (Nakagawa 2024: 561) In the Saru River basin, Aynurakkur and Aeoynakamuy tend to be regarded as the same individual, sometimes being referred to by several names within a single tale. (Nakagawa 2024: 561) The presence or absence of a refrain (sakehe) is a major characteristic that distinguishes kamuy yukar (divine epics) from other narrative genres. (Nakagawa 2024: 578) In kamuy yukar (divine songs), the same tale does not always have the same sakehe refrain, and conversely, the same sakehe may be attached to entirely different tales. (Nakagawa 2024: 584) In Sakhalin tuytah tales, sung phrases are almost always inserted, which can be viewed as sharing a common character with secondary sakehe in Hokkaido kamuy yukar. (Nakagawa 2024: 585) In Soya and Samani, divine songs (kamuy yukar) are called tuytak, suggesting a historical relationship between Sakhalin tuytah and Hokkaido kamuy yukar. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 585) In Ainu divine songs (kamuy yukar), the everyday life of a goddess is depicted through the thematic formula of doing needlework, whereas that of a male deity is depicted as carving sword sheaths. (Nakagawa 2024: 613) Divine epics are called kamuy yukar in Ainu. (Ōno 2022: 12.3) Kamuyukar are stories of the gods and constitute a special subtype of yukar. (Refsing 1986: 61) Divine songs (kamuy yukar) have a refrain (sakehe) attached to usually every verse line, whereas heroic epics do not have a refrain. (Satō 2004) The expression tap oro wano has so far only been attested in kamuy yukar (god songs). (Satō 2008: 302) In a strict sense, the term yukar refers only to heroic verse, while mythic epics are specifically referred to as kamuy yukar, mat yukar, or oyna. (Shibatani 1990: 4)
Prose narration: uwepeker, tuytak, and ucaskuma
What are the defining characteristics of prose tales?
Prose tales (monogatari / uwepeker) are recited without a melodic tune, unlike sung epic genres. (Nakagawa 2024: 553) Sakhalin Ainu prose tales (tuytah) frequently contain embedded sung passages with a melody. (Nakagawa 2024: 574) The Sakhalin genre term tuytah derives etymologically from tu ('two') and itah ('words'), reflecting the alternation between tuneless prose and sung passages. (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 574) In southwestern Hokkaido dialects and Chitose, the protagonist of human prose tales is typically an unnamed ordinary human without superhuman powers. (Nakagawa 2024: 553) In central and eastern Hokkaido dialects, the protagonist of human prose tales is frequently a named hero called Otasut un kur. (Nakagawa 2024: 553) Pananpe tales and Japanese folktale adaptations are narrated in the third person. (reported in Satō 2004) Although Pananpe tales have traditionally been characterized as third-person narratives, some versions feature Pananpe or Penanpe as a first-person-like narrator. (Nakagawa 2024: 555) Penampe/Panampe stories and children's folktales are commonly narrated in the third person and usually have two or more protagonists. (Bugaeva 2008) The ucaskuma genre of oral tradition is a non-rhythmic prose genre characterized by third-person narration that recounts the vicissitudes of humans. (Bugaeva 2022: 20.6) Pananpe-Penanpe tales formally begin with the formulaic phrase 'There was Pananpe; there was Penanpe' and are typically narrated in the third person. (Endō 2022: 10.2) In the tuytak of Tokachi (and Sakhalin tuytah), the listener inserts backchannel interjections such as 'hun' at narrative breaks. (Nakagawa 2024: 553) Human prose tales constitute the overwhelming majority of recorded prose tales and can be considered the prototype of the genre. (Nakagawa 2024: 553) In Pananpe-Penanpe tales, the downstream person Pananpe and the upstream person Penanpe are the main characters, and in upstream regions the successful character may be Penanpe rather than Pananpe. (Nakagawa 2024: 555) The demon oni appears in Pananpe tales across various regions, but never appears in any other genre of Ainu narrative. (Nakagawa 2024: 556) Oral traditions (lore conveying origins, family histories, and lessons) are called upaskuma in western Hokkaido and ucaskuma or ucaskoma in eastern Hokkaido. (Nakagawa 2024: 561) Oral traditions (upaskuma) do not have a fixed formal structure, and a narrative delivered in the form of a kamuyyukar or yukar may be called an upaskuma if viewed as imparting a moral lesson. (Nakagawa 2024: 561) The term rupaye is analyzable as ru ('melted') + pa ('mouth') + ye ('to say'), referring to recitation in prose without metrical melody constraints. (Nakagawa 2024: 576) Conventional formulaic phrases are also found in prose tales, with relaxed metrical constraints, supporting oral transmission. (Nakagawa 2024: 616) The term uepeker designates traditional folktales. (Ōno 2022: 12.4)
Genre-conditioned grammar: person marking and number in sung epic
How does person marking differ in sung epic versus everyday speech?
The famous Ainu folklore genres yukar and uwepeker are traditionally narrated in semi-direct reported discourse style, where the protagonist is referred to from the reporter's perspective with logophoric markers while other properties resemble direct reported discourse. (Bugaeva 2008) In yukar and uwepeker, embedded discourse events representing the speech of non-protagonist participants are usually encoded by the semi-direct reported discourse construction. (Bugaeva 2008) In the kamuy yukar genre, which is traditionally narrated in direct reported discourse style, there is a tendency to cast the discourse of non-protagonist characters as semi-direct reported discourse. (Bugaeva 2008) In some genres of folktales, a particular quotation construction has become conventionalized as the primary style. (Bugaeva 2008) ruwe ne is also used for events in stories that the speaker did not experience, such as in the narrative portions of prose tales. (Hirosawa 2026) In oral literature, ruwe ne appears more frequently than other evidential forms (Tamura 1997: 70; Yoshikawa 2020: 258). (reported in Hirosawa 2026) Ainu oral literature across major genres is fundamentally narrated in the first person ('autobiographical style') where the protagonist speaks as 'I'. (Satō 2004) In the Horobetsu dialect, even in folktales where a kamuy 'deity' is the protagonist, there are instances where the exact same person markers (namely the a- series) are used as in heroic epics and folktales where humans are protagonists. (Satō 2004) The structure in which a verb serves as the object of another verb is relatively common in oral literature, functioning as a kind of periphrasis. (Satō 2008: 91)
Verse structure: the two metres
How is verse structured in the absence of rhyme?
Mortar-pounding labor songs (iuta cinotcerasi) have two-beat and three-beat varieties, sung respectively during two-person pounding and three-person pounding. (Nakagawa 2024: 573) In Saru dialect oral literature, lyrical poetry disfavors four-syllable lines, whereas four-syllable lines make up 15 to 30% of the total lines in divine epic poetry. (Okuda 2022: 11.3) In Ainu heroic epic and divine songs, verse lines are composed of approximately five syllables and sung to a melody, whereas folktales do not possess a melody. (Satō 2004)
Competing taxonomies and contested genre boundaries
What alternative criteria have scholars used to classify oral genres?
Ainu oral literature can be classified according to the purpose of utterance into five major categories: kotobaasobi (wordplay), tonaegoto (chants/incantations), uta (songs), monogatari (narratives/tales), and iitsutae (oral traditions/lore). (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 534) The genre of kotobaasobi (wordplay) includes kuchikurabe (speech contests / tongue twisters), nazonazo (riddles), tori ya mushi no kikinashi (onomatopoeic interpretation of bird and insect calls), and asobiuta (play songs). (proposed in Nakagawa 2024: 534) The term uparpakte is translated as 'mouth contest' (kuchikurabe) by Chiri (1937b), denoting a fast-paced question-and-answer word game performed between speakers. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 536) In Ainu, riddles are designated by the term urekreku. (Nakagawa 2024: 537) In Ainu, the hooting of the Ural owl is heard as (pewrep ci=koyki) 'I caught a bear cub!'. (Nakagawa 2024: 539) In Ainu, the cry of the scops owl is heard as (huci totto) 'Grandma, breast milk!'. (Nakagawa 2024: 539) Texts called oyna 'sacred traditions' are handed down as an independent genre distinct from other genres only in very limited areas such as the lower Saru River basin and Horobetsu, and formally straddle kamuy yukar and heroic epics. (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 552)