Ainu

アイヌ (ainu): three people in traditional Ainu costume, at the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.

Alternative forms

• アィヌ

Noun

アイヌ ‎(aynu)

1. a person, a human being
2. the Ainu people
3. comrade
4. father, husband, or other adult male

Usage notes

This spelling is more common than アィヌ.

The Ainu pronunciation of this term has only two morae, so academic materials may spell this term in kana with the small ィ, or in romaji with a y, to explicitly indicate that the initial vowel is the single-mora diphthong ay (/ai̯/), and not the two-mora diphthong a i (/a.i/).

However, there is no three-mora term a i nu in the Ainu language, and most Ainu texts written in katakana use the spelling アイヌ instead.

References

Batchelor, John (1926) An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, third edition, Tokyo: Kyobunkan

Japanese

アイヌ (ainu): three people in traditional Ainu costume, at the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, Hokkaido.

Etymology

Borrowing from Ainu アイヌ ‎(aynu, “person, human being”).^[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ア​イヌ [áꜜìnù] (Atamadaka - [1])^[4]
• IPA^(key): [a̠ĩnɯᵝ]

Proper noun

アイヌ ‎(romaji Ainu)

1. Ainu

Derived terms

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. ↑ 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. ↑ 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, ISBN 4-09-501211-0
4. 1 2 1997, 新明解国語辞典 (Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten), Fifth Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13143-0