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For the language spoken in Central Asia, see Aini language
The Ainu language (アイヌ イタㇰ, Aynu Itak; Japanese: アイヌ語) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It was once spoken in the Kurile Islands, the northern part of Honshu, and the southern half of Sakhalin. Although typologically similar in some respects to Japanese, Ainu is thought to be a language isolate with no known relation to other languages. It is sometimes grouped with the Paleosiberian languages, but this is merely a cover term for several isolates and small language families believed to have been present in Siberia prior to the arrival of Turkic and Tungusic speakers; it is not a proper language family. In recent years, some have tried to link it to the Austronesian languages, by both vocabulary and cultural comparisons, such as the Japanese linguist Shichiro Murayama.
Speakers
Ainu is a moribund language. In the town of Nibutani where many of the remaining native speakers live, there are 100 speakers, out of which only 15 use the language every day. In all of Hokkaido, there are perhaps 1000 native speakers not younger than 30 (with few exceptions). Usage among native speakers is increasing so it is no longer accurate to say only 15 people use it regularly as there is a movement to turn the decline in number of speakers around before it is too late. Most of the 150,000 self-proclaimed ethnic Ainu in Japan (many additional Ainu are not aware of their origins or are secretive for fear of discrimination) speak only Japanese, although there is an increasing number of second language learners, especially in Hokkaido, thanks to the efforts of Ainu activist and former Diet member Shigeru Kayano, a native speaker himself.
Phonology
Ainu syllables are CV(C) and there are few consonant clusters.
There are five vowels:
i u
e o
a
Consonants:
p t k ʔ (glottal stop is not written in transcription)
s h
c (varies between [ʧ], [ʦ], [ʤ], [ʣ])
w y ([j])
m n
r
The sequence /ti/ is realized as [ʧi], /s/ becomes [ʃ] before /i/ and at the end of syllables. There is some variation among dialects; in the Sakhalin dialect, syllable-final /p, t, k, r/ are merged into /h/.
There is a pitch accent system; words including affixes have a high pitch on the stem, or on the first syllable if it is closed or has a diphthong. Other words have the high pitch on the second syllable.
Typology and grammar
Ainu is SOV, with postpositions. Subject and object are usually marked with postpositions. Nouns can cluster to modify one another; the head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently either transitive or intransitive, accept various derivational affixes.
Writing
Officially, the Ainu language is written in a modified version of the Japanese syllabary katakana. There is also a Latin-based alphabet in use. The Ainu Times publishes in both.
The Unicode character range Katakana Phonetic Extensions (31F0-31FF) [1] (http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/katakana_phonetic_extensions.html), [2] (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf) includes katakana characters mainly for the Ainu language. Katakana for final consonants, which do not appear in Japanese, are used often in Ainu.
Oral literature
The Ainu have a rich oral tradition of hero-sagas called Yukar, which retain a number of grammatical and lexical archaisms.
See also: Kannari Matsu Chiri Mashiho Chiri Takao Kindaichi Kyosuke Bronislaw Pilsudski
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