Back matterAbbreviations and conventions
Interlinear glossing
Interlinear examples follow the Leipzig Glossing Rules. In the morphemic line, a hyphen - separates affixes from stems and an equals sign = marks clitic boundaries. In the gloss line, grammatical categories appear in small capitals and lexical glosses in lower case; a period joins several gloss elements that correspond to a single unsegmentable morpheme (as in an ‘exist.SG’). Every Ainu word and morpheme in an example is linked to the dictionary of this site, and every example carries its source and a dialect tag.
An asterisk * marks an ungrammatical form; a preceding question mark marks a form of doubtful acceptability. Examples labelled constructed example are illustrations assembled for expository purposes and are not attested utterances; all other examples are attested in the cited source.
Gloss abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | first person |
| 1PL | first person plural |
| 1SG | first person singular |
| 2 | second person |
| 2PL | second person plural |
| 2SG | second person singular |
| 3 | third person |
| 3PL | third person plural |
| 3SG | third person singular |
| A | agent-like argument of a transitive verb |
| ADM | admonitive (‘lest’) |
| ADV | adverbial(izer) |
| ANTIP | antipassive |
| APPL | applicative |
| ASS | associative plural |
| ATTR | attributive |
| CAUS | causative |
| CL | classifier (numeral counter suffix) |
| COMIT | comitative |
| COMP | complementizer |
| COND | conditional |
| CONJ | conjunctive (clause-linking) particle |
| COP | copula |
| DES | desiderative |
| DIM | diminutive |
| DIST | distal |
| EMPH | emphatic |
| EP | epenthetic segment |
| EVID | evidential |
| EXCL | exclusive |
| FIN | final (sentence-final) particle |
| FOC | focus |
| HORT | hortative |
| HUM | human (in classifiers) |
| IMP | imperative |
| INCL | inclusive |
| INDEF | indefinite person (the Sakhalin Ainu an-/-an/i- set) |
| INFR | inferential evidential |
| INS | instrumental |
| INT | intensifier |
| INTERJ | interjection |
| IPFV | imperfective |
| ITR | iterative |
| LOC | locative |
| MIR | mirative |
| NEG | negative |
| NMLZ | nominalizer/nominalization |
| O | object (patient-like argument of a transitive verb) |
| ORD | ordinal |
| PASS | passive |
| PERS | personal (evidential of personal knowledge) |
| PFV | perfective |
| PL | plural |
| POL | polite |
| POSS | possessive (the “belonging” form of nouns) |
| PRF | perfect |
| PROG | progressive |
| PROH | prohibitive |
| PROX | proximal |
| PURP | purposive |
| Q | question particle |
| QUOT | quotative |
| RECP | reciprocal |
| REFL | reflexive |
| REP | reportative evidential |
| RES | resultative |
| S | single argument of an intransitive verb |
| SG | singular |
| TOP | topic |
| VBLZ | verbalizer |
Dialect tags
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| West Sakhalin | Examples from West-coast varieties (Rayciska, Esutoru, Otasu, Odasu and neighbouring settlements). |
| East Sakhalin | Examples from East-coast varieties (Ay, Otasan, Tunayci, Ociho, Tarayka and neighbouring settlements). |
| Sakhalin | Examples whose locality is not recorded or which hold across Sakhalin varieties. |
Other conventions
- Ainu forms are cited in the romanisation set out in the chapter on orthography; phonemic representations appear between slashes and phonetic ones in square brackets.
- Japanese and Russian names and titles are given in the original script at first mention, e.g. 樺太 Karafuto, Сахалин Sakhalin.
- Section references of the form §4.3 point within the present grammar; chapter titles are linked in the running text.