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Ainu (アイヌ イタㇰ, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu languages, itself considered a language isolate with no academic consensus of origin. It is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
Until the 20th century, the Ainu languages – Hokkaido Ainu and the now-extinct Kuril Ainu and Sakhalin Ainu – were spoken throughout Hokkaido, the southern half of the island of Sakhalin and by small numbers of people in the Kuril Islands. Due to the colonization policy employed by the Japanese government, the number of Hokkaido Ainu speakers decreased through the 20th century, and it is now moribund. A very low number of elderly people still speak the language fluently, though attempts are being made to revive it.
According to UNESCO, Ainu is an endangered language with few native speakers. Although there are estimated to be at least 30,000 Ainu people in Japan, there is a low rate of self-identification as Ainu among people with Ainu ethnic roots. Knowledge of the language was already endangered by the 1960s and has continued to decline since. , just 304 people within Japan were reported to understand the Ainu language to some extent. , Ethnologue listed Ainu as "nearly extinct" (class 8b).Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2016. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Nineteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
In 2017, 671 people aged 15 or above from 291 randomly selected households participated in a Hokkaido government survey on the lives of Ainu people. Participants were believed to be descendants of Ainu people or those who joined Ainu families by marriage or adoption. In response to survey questions about fluency in the Ainu language, 0.7% of participants answered that they "would be able to have a conversation" in Ainu, 3.4% answered that they "would be able to converse a little", 44.6% answered they "couldn't speak but had some knowledge about Ainu language", and 48.1% answered that they "couldn't speak at all".
In a subsequent survey of 472 respondents in 2023, 0.8% of respondents answered that they "would be able to have a conversation" in Ainu, 8.9% answered they "would be able to converse a little", 19.3% answered they "could barely converse at all", and 69.3% answered they "would not be able to converse at all" .
| + Ainu language usage amongst Ainu people in Hokkaido, surveys 1993-2023 |
| 0.8 |
| 8.9 |
| 1.7 |
| 472 |
On 12 July 2020, the Japanese government opened the National Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, Hokkaido. It forms one of three institutions named Upopoy (which means 'singing in a large group' in the Ainu language) alongside the National Ainu Park and a memorial site on high ground on the east side of Lake Poroto (ポロト湖) where Ainu services are held. Its director, Masahiro Nomoto, says that "One of our main objectives is to preserve and revive the language, as this is one of the most threatened elements of Ainu culture".
Announcements on some bus routes in Hokkaido can since be heard in Ainu, efforts are being undertaken to archive Ainu speech recordings by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and there is a popular educational Youtube channel which teaches conversational Ainu.
While these measures have been praised for taking steps to protect the Ainu language and culture, the museum and related government efforts have been criticised for failing to acknowledge the history of Japanese discrimination against the Ainu people, and for the government's refusal to apologise for past misdeeds against the Ainu.
may be voiced between vowels and after nasals. can be heard as in free variation among speakers. Both and are realized as , and becomes before and at the end of syllables. is heard as when occurring before . is heard as when before , as well as in final position. A glottal stop is often inserted at the beginning of words, before an accented vowel, but is non-phonemic.
The Ainu language also has a pitch accent system. Generally, words containing have a high pitch on a syllable in the stem. This will typically fall on the first syllable if that is long (has a final consonant or a diphthong), and will otherwise fall on the second syllable, though there are exceptions to this generalization.
Ainu has a canonical word order of subject, object, verb, and uses postpositions rather than . can cluster to modify one another; the head comes at the end. Verbs, which are inherently either transitive or intransitive, accept various derivational affixes. Ainu does not have grammatical gender. Plurals are indicated by a suffix.
Classical Ainu, the language of the , is polysynthetic, with incorporation of nouns and adverbs; this is greatly reduced in the modern colloquial language.
Applicatives may be used in Ainu to place nouns in Dative case, instrumental, Comitative case, Locative case, Allative case, or Ablative case roles. Besides freestanding nouns, these roles may be assigned to incorporated nouns, and such use of applicatives is in fact mandatory for incorporating Oblique case nouns. Like incorporation, applicatives have grown less common in the modern language.
Ainu has a closed class of , and some of these are Suppletion.
Ainu has a system of verbal affixes (shown below) which mark agreement for person and case. The specific cases that are marked differ by person, with nominative–accusative marking for the first person singular, tripartite marking for the first person plural and indefinite (or 'fourth') person, and Direct alignment for the second singular and plural, and third persons (i.e. the affixes do not differ by case).
| + Saru Ainu agreement affixes |
The Rev. John Batchelor was an English missionary who lived among the Ainu, studied them and published many works on the Ainu language. Original Batchelor wrote extensively, both works about the Ainu language and works in Ainu itself. He was the first to write in Ainu and use a writing system for it. Original Batchelor's translations of various books of the Bible were published from 1887, and his New Testament translation was published in Yokohama in 1897 by a joint committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland. Other books written in Ainu include dictionaries, a grammar, and books on Ainu culture and language.
This is a list of special katakana used in transcribing the Ainu language. Most of the characters are of the extended set of katakana, though a few have been used historically in Japanese, and thus are part of the main set of katakana. A number of previously proposed characters have not been added to Unicode as they can be represented as a sequence of two existing codepoints.
| o オ | |||||
| ko コ | |||||
| -k ㇰ | |||||
| so ショ / ソ ~ | |||||
| -s ㇱ / ㇲ | |||||
| to ト | |||||
| -t ㇳ / ッッ is final t at the end of a word (e.g. pet = ペッ = ペㇳ). In the middle of a polysyllabic word, it is a final consonant preceding the initial with a same value (e.g. orta /otta/ = オッタ; オㇿタ is not preferred). | |||||
| co チョ ~ | |||||
| no ノ | |||||
| -n ㇴ / ンAt the end of a word, n can be written either ㇴ or ン. In the middle of a polysyllabic word, it is ン. (e.g. tan-mosir = タンモシㇼ = タㇴ+モシㇼ, but not タㇴモシㇼ.) , , before , before , elsewhere. Unlike Japanese, it does not become other sounds such as . | |||||
| ho ホ | |||||
| -oh ㇹ | |||||
| po ポ | |||||
| -p ㇷ゚ | |||||
| mo モ | |||||
| -m ㇺ | |||||
| yo ヨ | |||||
| ro ロ | |||||
| -or ㇿ | |||||
| -r ㇽ | |||||
| wo ウォ / ヲ | |||||
| + Example with Syllable onset k: ! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! |
| kow |
| コゥ |
| kou |
| コウ |
Since the above rule is used systematically, some katakana combinations have different sounds from conventional Japanese.
A native written form of the Ainu language has never existed; therefore, the Ainu people traditionally relied on memorization and oral communication to pass down their literature to the next generation. Ainu literature includes nonfiction, such as their history and "hunting adventures," and fiction such as stories about spiritual avatars, magic, myths, and heroes.
More recently, the Japanese government has acknowledged the Ainu people as an indigenous population. As of 1997 they were given indigenous rights under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to their culture, heritage, and language.
The Ainu Cultural Promotion Act in 1997 appointed the Foundation for Research and Promotion of Ainu Culture (FRPAC). This foundation is tasked with language education, where they promote Ainu language learning through training instructors, advanced language classes and creation and development of language materials.
Despite this, there is an active movement to revitalize the language, mainly in Hokkaido but also elsewhere such as Kanto. Ainu oral literature has been documented both in hopes of safeguarding it for future generations, as well as using it as a teaching tool for language learners. Beginning in 1987, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, with approximately 500 members, began hosting 14 Ainu language classes, Ainu language instructors training courses and Family Ainu Learning Initiative and have released instructional materials on the language, including a textbook. Also, Yamato people linguists teach Ainu and train students to become Ainu instructors in university. In spite of these efforts, the Ainu language was not yet taught as a subject in any secondary school in Japan.
Due to the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act of 1997, Ainu dictionaries transformed and became tools for improving communication and preserving records of the Ainu language in order to revitalize the language and promote the culture. This act had aims to promote, disseminate, and advocate on behalf of Ainu cultural traditions. The main issue with this act however, was that not a single Ainu person was included in the "Expert" meetings prior to the law's passage, and as a result of this there was no mention of language education and how it should be carried out. The focus at this point was on Ainu culture revitalization rather than Ainu language revitalization.
As of 2011, there has been an increasing number of second-language learners, especially in Hokkaido, in large part due to the pioneering efforts of the late Ainu folklorist, activist and former Japanese Diet member Shigeru Kayano, himself a native speaker, who first opened an Ainu language school in 1987 funded by Ainu Kyokai. The Ainu Association of Hokkaido is the main supporter of Ainu culture in Hokkaido. Ainu language classes have been conducted in some areas in Japan and small numbers of young people are learning Ainu. Efforts have also been made to produce web-accessible materials for conversational Ainu because most documentation of the Ainu language focused on the recording of folktales. The Ainu language has been in media as well; the first Ainu radio program was called FM Pipaushi, which has run since 2001 along with 15-minute radio Ainu language lessons funded by FRPAC, and newspaper Ainu Times has been established since 1997. In 2016, a radio course was broadcast by the STVradio Broadcasting to introduce Ainu language. The course put extensive efforts in promoting the language, creating 4 text books in each season throughout the year.9783030024383 ISBN 9783030024383
In addition, the Ainu language has been seen in public domains such as the outlet shopping complex's name, , which means 'wind', in the Minami Chitose area and the name , meaning 'young', at a shopping centre in the Chitose area. There is also a basketball team in Sapporo founded under the name , after 'god of the wind' (its current name is Levanga Hokkaido). The well-known Japanese fashion magazine's name means 'flower' in Ainu.
Another Ainu language revitalization program is Urespa, a university program to educate high-level persons on the language of the Ainu. The effort is a collaborative and cooperative program for individuals wishing to learn about Ainu languages. This includes performances which focus on the Ainu and their language, instead of using the dominant Japanese language.
Another form of Ainu language revitalization is an annual national competition, which is Ainu language-themed. People of many differing demographics are often encouraged to take part in the contest. Since 2017, the popularity of the contest has increased.
On 15 February 2019, Japan approved a bill to recognize the Ainu language for the first time and enacted the law on April 19, 2019.
Outside of Japan, there have also been efforts to revive the Ainu culture and language in other countries, including Australia and Russia.
In 2019, researchers working together from both the Society for Academic Research of Ainu (SARC), representatives from Hokkaido University, and with the assistance of linguists spanning multiple universities and countries assisted in the creation of AI Pirika, an AI created with the goal of assisting with speech recognition and serving as a conversation partner.
| シネアン ト タ ベテトㇰ ウン シノタㇱ クス パイェアㇱ アワ, ベテトㇰタ シネ ポンルㇷ゚ネクㇿ ネスコ ウライ カㇿ クス ウライキㇰ ネアㇷ゚ コサニㇰケ ウカン プナㇱ・プナㇱ。 | ある日に（川の）水源の方へ（私が）遊ぶに（私が）出かけたら（思いがけなく）（川の）水源に一人の小男が胡桃（くるみ）の木の梁（やな）をたてるため（胡桃の木の）杭を打っていた。 （それに下げた）腰を幾度も上げて立っている。(腰を曲げ曲げしている。) | One day, as I went out to play at the spring, there was a little man at the spring hitting stakes made of walnut wood, in order to erect (some) wooden beams. His hip bent (and he bent down) and he straightened out (as he worked, going up and down over and over). |
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