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Proto-Ainu *aynu HL (< *a(n)=inu ?) (“person”, “man (in general)”).
Proto-Ainu *aynu HL (“person”).
Attested as early as 1822 as "Aïno-Moxori" as part of アイヌモシㇼ, transcribed as "Aino moxori" or "Aino mosir" as the name of Hokkaido, meaning "land of the Aino ".
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 diphthongay (/ai̯/), and not the two-mora diphthonga 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 this spelling instead.
In traditional Ainu society, lazy people were known as ウェンペ.
This table shows various dialectal forms in Ainu languages. The classification into Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril groups is based on geographical distribution.
^ Vovin, Alexander V. (1993) Leiden: E.J. Brill, editors, A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu.
^ 服部四郎・知里真志保(Shirō Hattori & Mashiho Chiri) (1960) 『アイヌ語諸方言の基礎語彙統計学的研究』「民族學研究」(Ainu Go Shohōgen No Kiso Goi Tōkeigaku Teki Kenkyū, “A Lexicostatistic Study on the Ainu Dialects”) (in Japanese), Japan: 日本文化人類学会(“Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology”)
^ Universal Geography, or a Description of All the Parts of the World, Book XLI, p. 508, by M. Malte-Brun, 1822: "The Jesuit Father Des Anges even saw this strait, described its terrible currents, and learned that the land beyond it, the island of Seghalien, was named Aïno-Moxori. This name signifies the isle of the Aïnos"
^ 服部四郎・知里真志保(Shirō Hattori & Mashiho Chiri) (1960) 『アイヌ語諸方言の基礎語彙統計学的研究』「民族學研究」(Ainu Go Shohōgen No Kiso Goi Tōkeigaku Teki Kenkyū, “A Lexicostatistic Study on the Ainu Dialects”) (in Japanese), Japan: 日本文化人類学会(“Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology”)
Further reading
John Batchelor (1905) An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language), Tokyo, London: Methodist Publishing House; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner Co.
中級アイヌ語―美幌―(Chūkyū Ainu-go - Bihoro, “Intermediate Ainu: Bihoro”) (in Japanese), Sapporo, Hokkaidō: 財団法人アイヌ文化振興・研究推進機構(Zaidan Hōjin Ainu Bunka Shinkō / Kenkyū Suishin Kikō, “Foundation for the Advancement, Research, and Promotion of Ainu Culture”), 2011
中級アイヌ語―千歳―(Chūkyū Ainu-go - Chitose, “Intermediate Ainu: Chitose”) (in Japanese), Sapporo, Hokkaidō: 財団法人アイヌ文化振興・研究推進機構(Zaidan Hōjin Ainu Bunka Shinkō / Kenkyū Suishin Kikō, “Foundation for the Advancement, Research, and Promotion of Ainu Culture”), 2011
単語リスト（アイヌ語・日本語）―石狩川―(Tango List Ainu-go Nihon-go - Ishikari River, “Word List (Ainu / Japanese) - Ishikari River”) (in Japanese), Sapporo, Hokkaidō: 公益財団法人アイヌ文化振興・研究推進機構(Zaidan Hōjin Ainu Bunka Shinkō / Kenkyū Suishin Kikō, “Foundation for the Advancement, Research, and Promotion of Ainu Culture”), 2014(Hokkaido)
単語リスト（アイヌ語・日本語）―カラフト―(Tango List Ainu-go Nihon-go - Karafuto River, “Word List (Ainu / Japanese) - Karafuto River”) (in Japanese), Sapporo, Hokkaidō: 公益財団法人アイヌ文化振興・研究推進機構(Zaidan Hōjin Ainu Bunka Shinkō / Kenkyū Suishin Kikō, “Foundation for the Advancement, Research, and Promotion of Ainu Culture”), 2014(Sakhalin)
DYBOWSKI のシュムシュ島アイヌ語資料について（第1部）(DYBOWSKI No Shumushu Tō Ainu Go Shiryō Ni Tsuite (Dai 1 Bu), “On DYBOWSKI's Shumshu Island Ainu Language Materials (Part 1)”) (in Japanese), Fukuoka: 村山七郎(Murayama Shichirō), 1970(Kuril)
Anna Bugaeva and Tomomi Satō (2021) A Kuril Ainu Glossary by Captain V. M. Golovnin (1811), Tokyo: International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics(Kuril)
Hudson, Mark J. (1999) Ruins of identity: ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands, University of Hawaiʻi Press, →ISBN
