Knowledge base · Part VI — Word Classes and Nominal Morphology · this topic as a network
33. The Word-Class Inventory and the Noun/Verb Bipartition
What are the word classes in Hokkaido Ainu, and how are nouns and verbs distinguished?
Principles and the class inventory
How are word classes defined in Hokkaido Ainu, and what criteria are used for classification?
The inventory of word classes in Ainu is similar to that of Japanese (Satō 2008: 2). Ainu has no conjugations or other inflectional morphological mechanisms that alter the basic form of a word (Refsing 1986: 23). Syntactic criteria classify Ainu words into seven parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adverbs, prenominals, interjections, auxiliary verbs, and particles (Nakagawa 2022: 14.1), whereas an analysis based on grammatical role and formal frame posits six major parts of speech (Nakagawa 2024: 116). Kindaichi proposed classifying Ainu word classes according to whether words can combine with personal affixes (reported in Refsing 1986: 20), suggesting a division of Hokkaido Ainu words into those that combine with personal affixes and those that do not (reported in Refsing 1986: 21). In Shizunai Ainu, the lexicon is initially divided into three major categories: nominals, verbals, and clitics (Refsing 1986: 75; reported in Majewicz 2022: 4.5). Particles in Ainu fall into five functional classes: case particles, conjunctive particles, adverbial particles, sentence-final particles, and auxiliary verbs (Nakagawa 2024: 117, 295). Historically, seemingly bound forms such as case suffixes, noun prefixes, and auxiliaries are independent words that assumed less independent roles (reported in Refsing 1986: 20).
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The defining diagnostics
What diagnostics distinguish verbs from nouns in Hokkaido Ainu?
Adverbs, adnominals, interjections, auxiliary verbs, and non-case particles have an arity of 0, whereas postpositional adverbs and case particles have an arity of +1, as seen in forms such as pirkano, eytasa, ani, tura, tan, sine, iyairaykere, uwa, rusuy, pa, ta, and un (Nakagawa 2024: 367).
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Verbs
What morphological and syntactic properties define verbs in Hokkaido Ainu?
The predicate position in Ainu is invariably occupied by a verb phrase whose head is a verb or an auxiliary verb (Nakagawa 2022: 14.2). Verbs in Ainu can serve as predicates and take one or two personal affixes (Nakagawa 2024: 117). In Shizunai Ainu, verbals are defined as forms that can function as predicates (Refsing 1986: 77). In Hokkaido Ainu, the smallest verbal form capable of functioning as an independent word is called the basic form of the verb, exemplified by komke, komo, tuye, and tuy (Nakagawa 2024: 136). Unlike Japanese verbs, Ainu verbs make no formal distinction between conclusive and conjunctive forms (Nakagawa 2024: 515). Inherently, the word iomante is an intransitive verb meaning 'to send the spirit of a kamuy' (Nakagawa 2024: 120). Forms showing semantic unity but grammatically behaving as two words are tentatively called separable verbs (Satō 2008: 230). Although limited in number, many separable verbs express basic meanings and are frequently used, including kes anpa, ka opas, ka opiwki, ka ose, ka oyki, and par oyki (Satō 2008: 230).
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Nouns
What properties define nouns in Hokkaido Ainu, and what subclasses do they have?
Nouns are defined as elements that form noun phrases capable of serving as arguments, whether subject or object, to a predicate (Nakagawa 2022: 14.3, Nakagawa 2024: 214). Nouns in Ainu do not serve as predicates, serve as verb arguments, and take at most one personal affix (Nakagawa 2024: 117). Ainu nouns exhibit neither case inflection nor grammatical gender distinctions (Shibatani 1990). In Refsing's analysis of Shizunai Ainu, nominals are defined as any free forms that cannot function as predicates (Refsing 1986: 45, 75). In that dialect, noun prefixes are strictly adjacent to their head nouns and restricted to specific noun subclasses, unlike adnouns (Refsing 1986: 155). Noun suffixes in Shizunai extend nominals without altering their syntactic function or nominal status (Refsing 1986: 159). In the Saru and Chitose dialects, okkay is not used as an independent noun (Nakagawa 2024: 268).
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Formal (defective) nouns
What are formal nouns in Hokkaido Ainu, and what are their syntactic restrictions?
Adverbs and postpositional adverbs
How do adverbs behave in Hokkaido Ainu, and what affixes do they lack?
Adverbs do not serve as predicates or verb arguments, modify verb phrases, and take objective personal affixes if any (Nakagawa 2024: 117). Conjunctions, interjections, and adverbs are free forms that may function as adverbial adjuncts modifying whole sentences (Refsing 1986). In Shizunai Ainu, conjunctions, interjections, and adverbs are free forms functioning syntactically as adverbial adjuncts that cannot serve as relational adjuncts (Refsing 1986: 77). Adjuncts in Shizunai that are not subjects, objects, case-marked, or quotations are categorized as adverbial adjuncts to the predicate (Refsing 1986: 273). Negative and prohibitive words such as somo and iteki are adverbs that precede the verb phrase they modify (Nakagawa 2024: 366). Postpositional adverbs express meanings similar to case particles but can also be used independently (Satō 2008: 3). Verbs converted into postpositional adverbs do not take nominative personal affixes (Nakagawa 2024: 123). In the Saru dialect, the word usa is basically an adverb but can be used adnominally in repetitive coordination (Nakagawa 2024: 286). In Sakhalin Ainu, the adverb sonno does not take person affixes, in contrast to intransitive verbs like sunke (Murasaki 2025: 105).
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Adnouns and prenominals
What are adnouns in Hokkaido Ainu, and how do they differ from other word classes?
Adnominals do not serve as predicates or verb arguments, modify noun phrases, and take no personal affixes (Nakagawa 2024: 117). In Sakhalin Ainu, words that always precede a noun and function exclusively to modify nouns are defined as adnominals (Murasaki 2025: 23). In Shizunai Ainu, adnouns modify nouns and occasionally nominalizers, precede the noun, and cannot occur in predicate position, as seen with sino (Refsing 1986), which distinguishes them from verbal modifiers like pirka (Refsing 1986). In the Saru dialect, the general adnominal oar functions both as an adnominal and as an adverb, appearing in expressions such as oar, oar tek, and oar isam (Nakagawa 2024: 286). In both the Saru and Chitose dialects, sonno and sino can function both as adnominals meaning 'real/true' and as adverbs (Nakagawa 2024: 286).
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Particles and auxiliary verbs
What types of particles exist in Hokkaido Ainu, and what grammatical functions do they serve?
According to Batchelor, there is no article in the Ainu language (reported in Majewicz 2022: 4.5). Particles in Ainu attach to free elements to express grammatical relationships (Nakagawa 2024: 117). In Tamura's model for the Saru dialect, an adverbial particle combines with verbal, nominal, or adverbial forms to yield forms of the same category (reported in Refsing 1986: 48). In Shizunai Ainu, the term restrictive postposition covers focus particles, restrictives, quasi-restrictives, comparators, and distributives (Refsing 1986: 48). Also in Shizunai, clitics are bound forms unable to appear independently either as predicates or as isolated adjuncts to a predicate (Refsing 1986: 77).
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Interjections
How do interjections function syntactically in Hokkaido Ainu?
Interjections have no syntactic relation with other elements and form independent sentences on their own (Nakagawa 2024: 117).
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The no-adjective analysis
Why is there no adjective class in Hokkaido Ainu, and how are property concepts expressed?
Chiri Mashiho's 1942 study was the first to propose that there is no need to distinguish verbs from adjectives in Ainu (reported in Nakagawa 2024: 83). In general, there is no need to posit an independent word class of adjectives in Ainu (Shibatani 1990: 18).
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The verb–noun continuum
How do verbs and nouns interconvert in Hokkaido Ainu without morphological marking?
All intransitive (one-place) verbs in Ainu can in principle function grammatically as nouns without morphological stem change, as exemplified by uwepeker (Bugaeva 2016, Nakagawa 2024: 491). In both Sakhalin and Hokkaido dialects, an intransitive verb or one-valence verb phrase can be used as a noun expressing a general concept (Tangiku 2022: 9.8), matching the behavior of unmodified intransitive verbs used nominally in Sakhalin Ainu (Tangiku 2022: 9.8). In Sakhalin Ainu, verb stems function not only as verbs expressing actions but also as verbal nouns meaning 'doing ...' (Murasaki 2025: 30). In the Saru dialect, tokapipe is used both as a noun meaning 'lunch' and as a one-place verb (Nakagawa 2024: 270). Also in Saru, the intransitive verb sukup 'to grow up' expresses 'life, living' when used nominally on its own (Satō 2008: 363). In the Chitose dialect, the word ekimne can function both as an intransitive verb and as an adverb (Bugaeva 2022: 20.2).
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