2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A Comparative Study of Ainu Dialects Based on Old Documents

Research Project

Project/Area Number	12610547
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	言語学・音声学
Research Institution	HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	SATO Tomomi Hokkaido Univ., Grad.School of Letters, Ass.Prof., 大学院・文学研究科, 助教授 (40231344)
Project Period (FY)	2000 – 2003
Keywords	Ainu / Sound change / Sociolinguistics / Historicallinguistics / Philology / Ainu sin'yoshu
Research Abstract	We have investigated mainly an old document called "Ezoki" this year. The results of our research are as follows. First, we have made clear phonetic characteristics of the Ainu language in the eighteenth century since the current /h/ corresponds to letters representing /p/ in this material, we can assume that /h/ might come from some other phoneme. Similarly, /a/ often corresponds to letters representing /o/ and this also implies that there was a sound change. Second, we have made clear the fact that there were a rich variety of sociolinguistic variations there is evidence that the same referent was called by many different words according to the situation. Third, we have shown that this material serves to decipher difficult lines of contemporary materials of Ainu. For example, a number of difficult expressions in the famous "Ainu sin'yoshu" [an Anthology of Ainu Epics of Gods] could be interpreted correctly only by making use of this material.