3. The Ainu People, Their Homeland, and History

The ethnonym Aynu and related designations 9 sentences

What does the word 'aynu' mean as an ethnic self-designation, and how is it used?

The Ainu homeland and its historical range 6 claims ·9 sentences

What was the historical extent of the Ainu homeland, and which territories did it cover?

1. There is no historical record or evidence of an enduring Ainu-speaking community on the Asian continent.
   ユーラシア大陸においてアイヌ語が話されていた、あるいは長期的なアイヌ語コミュニティが存在したことを示す歴史的記録や証拠はない。
   absence ainu
   asserts nakagawa2024, shiraishitangiku2022
   • nakagawa2024:88 asserts checked
   • shiraishitangiku2022:7.2 asserts checked
2. The Ainu formerly inhabited Hokkaido, northern Honshu, southern Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and southern Kamchatka.
   アイヌはかつて日本の北海道だけでなく、本州北部、樺太南部、千島列島、カムチャツカ南部に居住していた。
   other ainu
   asserts bugaeva2022
   • bugaeva2022:1.1 asserts checked
3. Ainu was historically spoken in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands, and is thought to have been spoken anciently at least in the northern part of the Tohoku region on Honshu.
   アイヌ語は北海道、樺太、千島列島で話されてきた言語であり、古くは本州東北地方の少なくとも北部では話されていたと考えられている。
   distribution ainu
   asserts nakagawa2024
   • nakagawa2024:13 asserts checked
4. There is a possibility that a small number of people migrated and spoke Ainu at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula and in the Amur River basin.
   カムチャッカ半島の南端やアムール川流域にも、少数の人が移住してアイヌ語を話していた可能性がある。
   distribution ainukamchatka
   proposes nakagawa2024
   • nakagawa2024:13 proposes checked
5. The regions where Ainu was definitely spoken in the past are all of Hokkaido, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.
   かつてアイヌ語が話されていた地域として確実に挙げることができるのは、北海道全域、樺太南部および千島列島である。
   distribution ainuhokkaidosakhalin/southkuril
   asserts nakagawa2024
   • nakagawa2024:77 asserts checked
6. In modern times, the Ainu people were settled in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.
   近代において、アイヌ民族は明確に区分される民族集団として北海道、樺太、千島列島に定住していた。
   other ainu
   asserts ono2022
   • ono2022:12.2 asserts checked

Subsistence, society, and the documentary record 9 sentences

How did Ainu subsistence, settlement, and vocabulary reflect their seasonal and ecological environment?

The archaeological background: from Jōmon to the historical Ainu 5 claims ·7 sentences

What archaeological cultures are linked to the Ainu's ancestry, and what does this imply for their language?

1. Proto-Ainu was not originally native to Hokkaido, but relocated there from Honshu in connection with the expansion of the Satsumon culture.
   祖アイヌ語（アイヌ語系統）は元来北海道にあったものではなく、擦文文化の拡大に伴って本州から移入されたものである。
   diachrony ainu
   asserts janhunen2022
   • janhunen2022:2.4 asserts checked
   • janhunen2022:2.5 asserts checked
   • supports: Ainu is the sole surviving language of the original linguistic diversity of Jōmon Japan.— Relocation from Honshu accounts for the survival of the Ainu linguistic lineage as the only extant branch of Jōmon languages.
2. Ainu is the sole surviving language of the original linguistic diversity of Jōmon Japan.
   アイヌ語は縄文時代の日本列島がもっていた本来の言語的多様性の唯一の生き残り言語である。
   existence ainu
   asserts janhunen2022
   • janhunen2022:2.4 asserts checked
   • janhunen2022:2.5 asserts checked
3. Proto-Ainu (Proto-Kurilic) was spoken on Hokkaido during the period of the Satsumon culture, between approximately 500 and 1,000 years ago.
   歴史的に記録されたアイヌ語諸方言の多様性の基礎にある祖形である祖アイヌ語（祖千島語）は、擦文文化の時代、おそらく500年以上前かつ1000年未満前に北海道で話されていた。
   diachrony ainu
   asserts janhunen2022
   • janhunen2022:2.4 asserts checked
4. The Ainu linguistic lineage has absorbed elements from Japanese, the language(s) of the Okhotsk people, and contact languages of Jōmon and Epi-Jōmon populations on Honshu and Hokkaido.
   アイヌ語の言語系統は、日本語やオホーツク文化の人々の言語、さらには本州や北海道の縄文・続縄文集団の諸言語から要素を取り込んできた。
   diachrony ainu
   asserts janhunen2022
   • janhunen2022:2.4 asserts anchored
5. The Okhotsk culture population underwent language shift to Ainu.
   オホーツク文化集団もアイヌ語への言語交替を起こした。
   diachrony ainu generic
   asserts janhunen2022
   • janhunen2022:2.4 asserts checked

Contact history: the Matsumae domain and Russian expansion 10 sentences

What are the earliest written records of the Ainu language, and in what trade context were they created?

Meiji-era annexation and assimilation policies 1 claims ·10 sentences

How did Meiji-era annexation and colonization affect the Ainu population and their dominance in Hokkaido?

1. Family names were not used in Ainu society before 1868, when Japanese family names were adopted.
   アイヌ社会では1868年に日本の名字が導入されるまで家名は使用されていなかった。
   absence ainu none
   asserts refsing1986
   • refsing1986 asserts checked

From the 1997 law to the 2019 recognition 8 sentences

What did the 1997 Ainu Culture Promotion Act provide, and what did it fail to recognize?