Mermaid construction in Ainu

National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistic

On the Innovative Nature of Sakhalin Ainu: Focusing on Nominalization

This paper focuses on the innovative nature of Sakhalin Ainu with respect to nominalization. Based on a cross-dialectal comparison, I suggest that zero-nominalization [(nP…) V]NP reflects the oldest stage (I), while the strategy of adding a nominalizing word [(nP…) V nmz]NP, which proliferates in Hokkaido Ainu, may be regarded as the next stage (II). Finally, in Sakhalin Ainu, non-finite verbal forms containing possessive-style marking [(nP…) V-Poss]NP (III), which can also be used as non-embedded (finite) structures [(nP…) V-Poss]MC (IV) in a broad range of presuppositional contexts, may be regarded as the last and most innovative stage.Настоящая работа посвящена более позднему характеру сахалинского диалекта айнского языка в том, что касается номинализации. На основе сопоставления разных диалектов мы выдвигаем гипотезу, что нулевая номинализация [(nP…) V]NP отражает наиболее древний этап (I). Алгоритм добавления номинализирующего слова [(nP…) V nmz]NP, распространенный в хоккайдском диалекте, рассматривается как следующий этап (II). И, наконец, в сахалинском диалекте нефинитные глагольные формы, включающие посессивные маркеры [(nP…) V-Poss]NP (III), которые также могут использоваться как невстроенные (финитные) структуры [(nP…) V-Poss]MC (IV) в широком диапазоне пресуппозиционного контекста, рассматриваются как наиболее поздняя, последняя стадия

A unique linguistic text in Nivkh by A. A. Yushkina

Peer reviewe

Appositive possession in Ainu and around the Pacific

Some languages around the Pacific have multiple possessive classes of alienable constructions using appositive nouns or classifiers. This pattern differs from the most common kind of alienable/inalienable distinction, which involves marking, usually affixal, on the possessum, and has only one class of alienables. The Japanese language isolate Ainu has possessive marking that is reminiscent of the Circum-Pacific pattern. It is distinctive, however, in that the possessor is coded not as a dependent in an NP but as an argument in a finite clause, and the appositive word is a verb. This paper gives a first comprehensive, typologically grounded description of Ainu possession and reconstructs the pattern that must have been standard when Ainu was still the daily language of a large speech community; Ainu then had multiple alienable class constructions. We report a cross-linguistic survey expanding previous coverage of the appositive type and show how Ainu fits in. We split alienable/inalienable into two different phenomena: Argument structure (with types based on possessibility: optionally possessible, obligatorily possessed, and non-possessible) and valence (alienable, inalienable classes). Valence-changing operations are derived alienability and derived inalienability. Our survey classifies the possessive systems of languages in these terms.Peer reviewe

The Interaction of Relativization and Noun Incorporation in Southern Hokkaidō Ainu

This paper focuses on relativization in Southern Hokkaidō Ainu. Specifically, evidential expressions constitute the scope of this study since within this semantic domain a morphosyntactic layout reminiscent of internally-headed relative clauses (IHRCs) is found. Moreover, the structure of some evidential expressions suggests that what gives rise to an IHRC in those instances is classificatory noun incorporation (CNI). Following from past studies on Ainu, where IHRCs and CNI are never discussed, and with reference to cross-linguistic approaches to relativization and incorporation, this study addresses the interaction of these two processes in Southern Hokkaidō Ainu and suggests their reconsideration

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

Revitalizing Ainu. A Web-accessible Ainu-Japanese-English Conversational Dictionary

Ainu (Northern Japan, isolate) is nearly extinct at present, as only a couple of people aged 80-90 remember their native language. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Ainu (present population about 100,000) experienced severe ethnic and linguistic repression from the state which led to the rapid abandonment of language and its eventual loss by succeeding generations of the Ainu. However, the attitude of many Ainu towards their native culture and language has changed to positive after the official adoption of ãThe Law for the Promotion of the Ainu Culture...? (1997) and the official recognition of the Ainu as the indigenous population of Hokkaido (2008). More and more Ainu are experiencing a new sense of self-identity and becoming aware of the importance of revitalizing their language and culture; 15 Ainu language schools were established. The creation of a web-accessible Ainu-Japanese-English Conversational Dictionary is a part of my ELDP project "Documentation of the Saru Dialect of Ainu" (2007-2009) which generally aims at creating digital corpora of newly and previously recorded Ainu audio materials. Having attended the 11th annual Ainu speech contest (November 2007), I realized that the Ainu community had a very strong demand for Ainu conversational audio recordings, since all previous Ainu documentation was focused on recording folklore. This made me revise my ELDP project to adjust it to the actual needs of the community. I decided to use a rarity "An Ainu-Japanese Conversational Dictionary" (3,847 lexemes/conversational phrases) compiled by anthropologists K. Jinbo and S. Kanazawa in 1898. The dictionary contains 3,847 entries, i.e. conversational phrases or words, and presumably belongs to the Saru dialect. I had the dictionary recorded by a speaker of the Saru dialect, Mrs. Setsu Kurokawa (85) who was either reading Ainu phrases transcribed in the Japanese (katakana) alphabet or repeating them after me. The speaker's productive skills improved so rapidly that she even started improvising on the dictionary. By the end of the grant period, I plan to complete a web-accessible reader-friendly edition of the Ainu conversational dictionary with audio and some video recordings supplemented with katakana transcriptions, English translations and multi-tire annotations. It will consist of a simple search interface that allows the user to enter a string to be found in the dictionary, either in Ainu or Japanese/English. I also intend to publish a paper edition of the dictionary to facilitate its use by those who do not have internet access

The study of old documents of Hokkaido and Kuril Ainu : promise and challenges

Focusing on cross-dialectal comparison is particlarly important in the case of language isolates like Ainu, which lack outside comparisons. Unfortunately, Kuril Ainu, which is absolutely indispensable for the reconstruction, disappeared in the late 19th century with just few old documents left. This study presents several newly discovered unpublished Kuril Ainu documents, i.e. Opisanie na pervom ostrovu zhivuscikh kurilov... [A description of the Kuriles living on the first island...] by O. Argunov (1742) and Kuril'skie slova [Kuril Words ; I.G. Voznesensky's archive] (1844?) from the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and attempts to revise Murayama's (1971) overview of Kuril Ainu and pursue historical research on a number of isues. Though Murayama (1971) notes that Kuril Ainu is extremely important for Ainu dialectology and history of Ainu, he does not give any concrete examples of how it can actually be used for this purpose. This paper suggests that Kuril Ainu old documents can reveal a lot only when compared with old documents of other dialects, i.e. Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu. Despite many difficulties in accessing and deciphering, the study of old Kuril Ainu documents and their comparison with Hokkaido and Sakhalin Ainu documents is very promising because it is quite possible to find previously undocumented vocabulary items (e.g. obscenities including the word unatara which appeared in both unpublished Kuril Ainu materials in Cyrillic and kana materials), identify new meanings of words (e.g. in Kuril Ainu, kotan means not only ‘village’ but also ‘island’), and even attempt to recover Proto-Ainu through the reconstruction in phonology (e.g. *CVHC syllable structure in PA based on words for ‘good’ and ‘dark’ in Hokkaido, Sakhalin and Kuril Ainu old records) and grammar (person marking and negation)