The genetic association of Ainu
Date
1994
Authors
Yanagizaki, Yumi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
One of the most interesting issues concerning the Ainu language is the uncertainty of its genealogy. Ainu is often classified as a language isolate whose genetic affiliation to other languages or language families has not been conclusively proven, as is the case with Japanese, Ainu's neighbour. The most widely debated and studied hypothesis is the one which assigns Ainu to the Altaic family, assuming the subgrouping of Japanese-Korean and Ainu together within the family. Today, the most time-honored hypothesis seems to be the one relating Ainu to the Austronesian languages. From a linguistic point of view, the recent attempt to demonstrate the affiliation between Ainu and the Austronesian languages was made by Murayama (1992) following Gjerdman (1926:29-84), yet fully-fledged linguistic investigation has not been made involving various dialects of Ainu and recent materials for Proto-Austronesian. It is the purpose of my thesis to provide conclusive evidence relating Ainu to the Austronesian languages. The study is proceeded by setting up Ainu roots for comparison with Proto-Austronesian. A considerable number of cognate sets and regular sound correspondences between Ainu and Proto-Austronesian are found as a result of the comparison.