Ainu language
languages spoken by Ainu ethnic groups in Hokkaido, Kuril and Sakhalin / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ainu language is the language of the Ainu people in northern Japan.[3] It was not written until the 19th century. Since then, it has been written in katakana or the Latin alphabet.
Ainu | |
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アイヌ・イタㇰ Aynu=itak | |
Multilingual sign in Japanese, Ainu, English, Korean and Chinese. Ainu is the second language from the top on the right side of the sign. | |
Pronunciation | [ˈainu iˈtak] |
Native to | Japan |
Region | Hokkaido |
Ethnicity | 15,000 Ainu people in Japan (no date)[1] |
Native speakers | 10 (2007)[2] |
Katakana, Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ain |
Glottolog | hokk1243 |
ELP | Ainu (Japan) |
![]() The historically-attested range of the Ainu (solid red) and the suspected former range (pink) based on toponymic evidence (red dots) [Vovin 1993], Matagi villages (purple dots), and Japanese isoglosses | |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
In the 19th century, Ainu was spoken in Ezo (including Hokkaidō Island and the southern part of Chishima Islands), the southern part of Karapto (Sakhalin) and the northern part of Chishima Islands (Kuril Islands).[4] Now it is only spoken in Hokkaidō.
Ainu had many dialects, including Chitose, Saru, and Karapto.[3] Now only the Hokkaidō dialect survives. The dialects were so different from one another that a speaker of one dialect could not understand a speaker of another dialect.[3]
Historically, speakers of Ainu lived near speakers of Japanese and Itelmen (from Kamchatka). The Nivkh, which was spoken in the northern part of Sakhalin, is another isolated language.