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Ainu for Beginners - Part 3

Lesson 11: Declarative

Sentences

タパンペ プクサ ネ。
Tapanpe pukusa ne.
This is ramsons.

トオンペ カンガルー ネ。
Toonpe Kangaroo ne.
That is a kangaroo.

Ramsons is a type of plant that is used in Ainu cuisine.

Grammar

The standard Ainu copula is ne, and this is used a lot. In order to say "A is B", the basic Ainu construction would be "A B ne." For example, a statement like "My uncle is a judge" in Ainu would be "クコ アチャポ 裁判官 ネ ku=kor acapo saihankan ne." Ainu has no articles.

Another example, "This is a cell phone that I bought yesterday" would be: "タパンペ ヌマン クホ 携帯電話 ネ Tapanpe numan kuok keitaidenwa ne", literally "this-yesterday-I buy-cell phone-to be."

Note that any complex Japanese word may take place in Ainu if the word is not likely to be used in traditional Ainu life and yet essential in modern days, such as "Saihankan" or "Keitaidenwa." You may just treat them as Ainu words as long as you stick to Roman Ainu, but they may or may not be written in Kanji (characters) in Katakana Ainu, so beware of that. (From what I have seen, Katakana Ainu is more popular)

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) This is my school.
2) That is a bear.

Solutions

1) タパンペ クコ カッコ ネ Tapanpe ku=kor kakko ne.
2) トオンペ キムンカムイ ネ Tapanpe kimunkamuy ne.

Vocabulary

 カッコ  Kakko  School (From Japanese 学校 Gakkou)
 ネ  Ne  Copula (To be)
 タパンペ  Tapanpe  This
 クコ  Ku=kor  My
 キムンカムイ  Kimunkamuy  Bear
 トオンペ  Toonpe  That
 カンガルー  Kangaruu  Kangaroo
 トオンペ  Toonpe  That
 プクサ  Pukusa  Ramsons

Lesson 12: Topic Marker

Sentences

タント アナ リ ユケ。
Tanto anak rir yupke.
Today the sea wave is rough.

タン コタン アナネ ソンノ フコ。
Tan kotan anakne sonno husko.
This village is very old.

Grammar

Anak and anakne are the topic markers and the two words can be used interchangeably. In the first sentence "タント アナ リ ユプケ tanto anak rir yupke", what is strong is the wave, not the day, but still the topic of interest is what the wave is like today. It could be roughly translated into English as "speaking of today, the sea wave is rough" or so. The emphasis is on today, not the sea.

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) Ice is cold.
2) This road is good.

Solutions

1) コンル アナ ヤム Konru anak yam.
2) タン ル アナネ ピカ Tan ru anakue parke.

Vocabulary

 ヤ  Yam  Cold
 コンル  Konru  Ice
 アナ  Anak  Topic marker
 ル  Ru  Road, path
 プ  Pirka  Good
 アナ  Anakne  Topic marker
 タン  Tan  This
 コタン  Kotan  Village, town
 ソンノ  Sonno  Very, truly, really
 タント  Tanto  Today
 フ  Husko  Old
 ユ  Yupke  Rough, tough, strong
 リ  Rir  Sea wave

Lesson 13: Locative

Sentences

テエタ 等じゅ院 アナネ オコタヌ タ アン。
Teeta Touzyuin anakne okotanusi ta an.
A long time ago, Touzyuin was in Okotanusi.

ペッ オケ タ チェ オカイ。
Pet oske ta cep okay.
(There) are fish in the stream. (lit: in the middle of stream)

等じゅ院 "Touzyuin" is a proper name of a temple. "じゅ" as in "等じゅ院" is supposed to be in an obscure Kanji, minus plus . Don't worry if you can't imagine how the Kanji is supposed to be like. It's just a proper name.

Grammar

Ainu ta is a locative particle which roughly corresponds to Japanese ni. It means the subject or topic of the sentence is in or at something, whether in space or in time.

A particle is a small grammatical word that is placed after the noun it modifies, and you can think of it either as an add-on to change the case of the word, or a postposition instead of a preposition. The topic markers that we looked at, anak, anakne are particles as well, although it does not carry any case. Ainu particles are largely postpositional, they are placed directly after the word: compare English in Sapporo and Ainu Satporo ta.

It can be used with other particles to deliver more specific information: oske ta "in the midst of", soy ta "outside of", ka ta "on top of" etc.

More examples:

クコル アチャ チセ ソイ タ アン。
Ku=kor aca cise soy ta an.
My-father-house-outside-(locative)-to be.
My father is outside of house.

ニ カ タ チカ レウ。
Ni ka ta cikap rew.
Tree-above-(locative)-bird-to stop
The bird stops on top of the tree.

クコ ウナペ サッポロ タ アン。
Ku=kor unarpe Satporo ta an.
My-aunt-Sapporo-(locative)-to be.
My aunt is in Sapporo.

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) (There) is kombu on the coast
2) (There) is a big fort on top of the mountain.

Solutions

1)  タ コンプ ヤン Pis ta kompu yan.
2) ヌプリ カ タ ポロ チャシ アン Nupuri ka ta poro casi an.

Vocabulary

 ヤン  Yan  To rise
 タ  Ta  Locative particle
 ピシ  Pis  Shore, coast
 コンプ  Kompu  Kombu (A type of edible sea kelp)
 チャシ  Casi  Fortification, castle
 ポロ  Poro  Big
 カ  Ka  Above
 アン  An  To be (singular)
 ヌプリ  Nupuri  Mountain
 アナ  Anakne  Topic marker
 オカイ  Okay  To be (plural)
 オコタヌシ  Okotanusi  Okotanusi (place name)
 オシケ  Oske  In, in the midst of
 チェ  Cep  Fish
 テエタ  Teeta  Olden times, before
 ペッ  Pet  River, stream

Lesson 14: Allative

Sentences

クコ アチャ インド エン オマン。
Ku=kor aca Indo en oman.
My father goes to India.

ペッ オケ エン チカ アフン。
Pet oske en cikap ahun.
Bird goes into the river.

インド Indo is Japanese name for India. As this is a foreign loanword as well, this is used in Ainu the same way it is used in Japanese.

Grammar

エン en is an allative case particle. It signifies the destination of a movement: to where. It is permissible to leave this out in Japanese, but not in Ainu.

 ○ サッポロ エン クオマン Satporo en ku=oman.
 × サッポロ クオマン Satporo ku=oman.

Depending on the region, this エン en may become ウン un, エネ ene, or エコタ ekota, particularly in Eastern Hidaka. Kirsten Refsing notes the form オルン orun in her book as well.

Pronunciation

Small in チカ cikap doesn't have the -u vowel that full Katakana pu has.

 チ  Cip  Ship
 セプ  Sep  Wide
 ポ  Popte  To spend
 アカシ  Apkas  To walk
 シ  Sirkap  Marline (A type of fish)
 イトゥンナ  Itunnap  Ant
 タ  Tapkar  Dance
 タ  Tapkop  Mountain bump

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) Yesterday aunt went to Tokachi.
2) I climb to the mountaintop.

Solutions

1) ヌマン ウナペ トカチ エン オマン Numan unarpe Tokapci en oman.
2) ヌプリ カ エン クリキン Nupuri ka en ku=rikin.

Vocabulary

 エン  En  Allative particle
 オマン  Oman  To go
 ヌマン  Numan  Yesterday
 ウナルペ  Unarpe  Aunt
 トカプチ  Tokapci Tokachi (Place name)
 ク  Ku=  I
 カ  Ka  Above
 リキン  Rikin  To climb
 ヌプリ  Nupuri  Mountain
 アチャ  Aca  Father
 アフン  Ahun  To enter, to go into
 インド  Indo  India
 オシケ  Oske  Middle, midst
 コル  Kor  To have, to hold
 シカプ  Cikap  Bird
 ペッ  Pet  River, stream

Lesson 15: Ablative

Sentences

ヌプペッ ワ クエ
Nupurpet wa ku=ek.
I come from Noboribetsu.

ニ カ ワ りんご トゥイ。
Ni ka wa ringo tuy.
Apple falls from the treetop.

Grammar

Wa is the ablative case particle,: from somewhere. We have seen three case particles related to the motion: stationary ta (locative), direction en (allative), and ablative wa.

Pronunciation

t as in ヌプペッ nupurpet is a small "tsu" but it is not pronounced as such, but as a final consonant -t. This is a difficult sound for Japanese as Japanese phonotactics doesn't allow such sound to come at the end (though they can have it in the middle of a word).

Exercises

Exercises: Translate to Ainu

1) I come from Shizunai.
2) Uncle came outside from the inside of the house.

Solutions

1) シピチャ ワ クエ Sipicar wa ku=ek.
2) チセ オケ ワ アチャポ ソイネ Cise oske wa acapo soyne.

Vocabulary

 ワ  Wa  Ablative particle
 エ  Ek  To come
 シピチャ  Sipicar  Shizunai (place name)
 ク  Ku=  I
 ソイネ  Soyne  To come outside
 オ  Oske  Middle, midst
 チセ  Cise  House
 アチャポ  Acapo  Uncle
 コッ  Kot  Hole, concave
 ハッ  Hat  Mountain grapes
 ニサッ  Nisat  Daybreak
 オオワッ  Oowat  To go back, to return
 ポロペッ  Poropet  Horobetsu (place name)
 フッネ  Hutne  Narrow
 マッネシ  Matnesir  Mount Yotei (place name)
 シンリッ  Sinrit  Root, ancestor
 アペソコッ  Apesokot  Hearth, fireplace
 カ  Ka  Above, top
 トゥイ  Tuy  To fall, to drop, or to stop falling (rain, snow etc).
 ニ  Ni  Tree
 ヌプペッ  Nupurpet  Noboribetsu. (place name)
 リンゴ  Ringo  Apple. (Japanese loanword)

The place name Noboribetsu derives from Ainu Nupurpet, meaning deep-coloured (Nupur) stream (Pet).


End Of Part Three

This is the end of part three. You can continue with part IV of this course.

Continue to part IV

Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes or you just want to say something then please let us know . We do need feedback!

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