Ainu Language and Identity in Relation to Japan

1
Ainu Language and Identity in Relation to Japan

• Language, Culture, and Transformation

2
The People

• The Ainu are an indigenous minority of northern
  Japan
• Their numbers have been rapidly declining due to
  assimilation only about 24,000 ethnic Ainu
  remain.
• Elements of the culture are struggling to be
  preserved, while the language is particularly
  endangered.

3
Ainu Culture and Heritage

• The Ainu inhabit the island of Hokkaido,
  bordering Russia
• Their precise origin is unknown, but they
  probably are part of the Mongoloid family, as are
  the Japanese.
• Have an economy based mainly on fishing, and are
  characterized by elaborate, ancient ceremonies.
• Isolation of communities has led to the emergence
  of a diverse, particularly linguistically.

4
The Language

• Origins are unknown, but Ainu is not mutually
  comprehensible nor closely related to Japanese.
• No written history until very recent, so Ainu has
  been preserved only through stories, songs,
  myths, and epics.
• First Westerner, John Batchelor (1854-1944) began
  the process of codification of Ainu, and recent
  revivals of the language have pushed for a more
  thorough and compiling of grammar and vocabulary.

5
Language Origin Hypotheses

• The origin of the Ainu Language is not certain
  and many hypotheses of this subject exist
• Indo-European
• Austronesian
• Paleosiberian
• Altaic

6
Structure of the Language

• Nouns do not decline based on number, gender, or
  case rather, they suffixes are added according
  to grammatical person, a peculiarity of the Ainu
  language.
• Verbs and adjectives are very similar neither
  conjugate/decline, and the only difference is
  that adjectives have no imperative form.
• Ainu grammar is dependent almost solely on verbs,
  accounting for nearly 2/3 of all grammatical
  morphology. Verbs are either transitive or
  intransitive and never change their form, but
  utilizes complicated affixes, prefixes, suffixes,
  and auxiliaries.
• Basic sentence structure follows the pattern of
  subject object verb, similar to Japanese and
  a multitude of other languages.
• A characteristic of Ainu is its extensive use of
  post-positions, particles which determine the
  type of sentence i.e., negative, imperative,
  interrogative, etc.

7
Japanese Influence on Ainu Language

• A long history of close contact between the two
  cultures has, of course, caused some language
  borrowing, mostly in nouns borrowed via trade.
• Place Names The pronunciation of Ainu place
  names have been altered over time by Japanese,
  but still remain in Hokkaido and northern Tohoku.
• Examples of borrowed words

8
Ainu influence on Japanese Language

• Less influence on the Japanese Language by the
  Ainu has occurred
• The majority of this influence also comes from
  trade
• example table on right

9
Ainu Origins

• Europoid as clear as light of day that
  theyre lost Caucasians
• Australoid Southeast Asians who went north
• Mongoloid not so different from their Japanese
  neighbors

10
Jomon

• Proto-Australoid
• Ancestor of Ainu or Japanese?
• Japanese are Sinodontic (Chinese-toothed) while
  Ainu and Jomon are Sundadontic (Southeast
  Asian-toothed)

11
Original Uncertainty

• Northeast Asian
• Cranial Morphology yes to Neolithic Central
  Asians, no to Southeast Asians.

• Southeast Asian
• Though Sundadontic, they share few genetic
  similarities with Southeast Asian people.

• Japanese
• Modern Japanese are between 10-20 Ainu, and Ainu
  are as much as 40 Japanese

12
Native Japanese vs. Japanese

• Treated similar to how US treated Native
  Americans
• 1868 land confiscated, given to Japanese
  settlers
• Forced onto bad land
• 1979 protect minorities

13
The Language Situation

• Inaccurate statistics
• 1950 5 to 10 years
• Language classes best barometer, increased in
  the 1980s
• 1994 Akor itak textbook