Lesson 1: To be

Linking nouns with the copula ne

In this lesson, you will familiarize yourself with how to use Ainu copula ne 'to be'. You'll learn how to say phrases like 'this is a dog' in Ainu and also how to say 'that is not a flower' in Ainu.

'To be' (A is B): A B ne

Let's start with learning how to say 'A is B'. The copula (or verb 'to be') in Ainu is ne. In Ainu, the copula and the verbs always come the last in the sentence. So, when saying 'A is B' in Ainu, the order of the words is 'A B is'. Here are some examples:

Examples 1

Vocabulary 1

  • tanpe (N) — this
  • nonno (N) — flower
  • ne (COP) — to be
  • seta (N) — dog
  • cikoykip (N) — (wild) animal; game
  • paskur (N) — crow
  • cikap (N) — bird

You might have noticed that I didn't capitalize the initials of each sentence above. Because Ainu is a non-standardized language, there are not yet exact rules how to write the language. It seems that now most people only use lower case letters when writing Ainu, even when it comes to the first letter of a sentence and person's or place's names. I do the same here for now, and if there will be a new set of rules some time in the future, I'll fix the sentences here, too.

Also notice that Ainu doesn't have indefinite ('a', 'an') nor definite articles ('the') like English. There are means to express indefiniteness and definiteness but those methods are not used in the same way and especially not in the same frequency as in English. In Ainu, the meaning (whether the speaker is talking about something new or familiar) is mostly inferred from the context.

The word cikoykip '(wild) animal' has traditionally referred only to wild animals people hunt. It means literally 'the things that we catch'. Here I use it with the word seta 'dog', so there might be people who think this is wrong and they don't like this kind of arbitrary meaning extension ('game, wild animal' → 'animal in general'). Another option is to refer to domestic animals or pets for example as aresup, literally 'the thing that we raise'. This, on the other hand, is not an entrenched word that has been used for a long time and there might be people who don't like using these kinds of neologisms. So, whatever you do, there is always someone to criticize you, and it's probably the best just to do whatever you want.

'Not to be' (A is not B): A B somo ne

Saying 'A is NOT B' is pretty simple. All you have to do is just to add the negating adverb somo in front of the copula ('to be'). 

Examples 2

Vocabulary 2

  • tanpe (N) — this
  • nonno (N) — flower
  • somo (ADV) — not
  • ne (COP) — to be
  • cape (N) — cat
  • cikap (N) — bird
  • toanpe (N) — that
  • upas (N) — snow
  • yuk (N) — deer
  • kamuy (N) — kamuy (spiritual being; deity)

The example sentence 7 and the word kamuy require a bit additional explaining. According to traditional Ainu knowledge, everything around us has a spirit. Ainu call these spirits kamuy. So, what are kamuy exactly? That is not unfortunately something I can tell you because I don't understand the concept well enough. Most of the animals are kamuy; plants, threes, and other things found in nature are kamuy, meteorological phenomena are kamuy, tools that help people to work are kamuy. In the land of the kamuy—kamuy mosir—these spirits and deities have the same shape as humans, but when they come down from their land to the land of the humans—aynu mosir—they take different shapes in the forms of animals, plants, trees, tools, etc. Some of these spirits are strong, some weak, some do good things, and some do bad things (this is of course a subjective view of human beings). People, aynu, however, are not kamuy, they are just human beings.

So, if most animals are kamuy, why not deer? Venison and salmon were Ainu's staple food, something that Ainu couldn't survive without during the long, cold winters. That's why they were both thought to be gifts from the gods: Deity of Deer— yuk kor kamuy 'kamuy that rules over the deer'—and Deity of Salmon—cep kor kamuy 'kamuy that rules over the fish'—but deer and salmon are not kamuy themselves.

Another way to say 'not to be' (A is not B): A B ka somo ne

So, was that the end of the first lesson? No, no, wait! That's not all. There is another way to say 'A is not B' in Ainu. This is to attach the phrase ka somo ne after the noun B or, if you rather think it this way, make the sentence negative and then add the particle ka between the noun B and the negotiation somo. So, if we put the examples 4 to 6 in this other form, we get

Examples 3

Vocabulary 3

  • ka (PRT) — also, even, at all

Ka is a particle (in other words, a word that attach to another word to add some meaning but can't be used alone) that gives emphasis to the noun it is attached to. The meaning ka adds depends on the context but it adds a nuance of  something being contrary to expectations or more than expected, or it expresses that the word ka is attached to is an addition to something else. If you try to translate it literary in English, it can be something like 'also', 'even,' or 'at all'. So, the sentences 7-9 are just more emphatic ways to say that A is not B.

Great! That's all for the first lesson on your journey to learn the basics of the Ainu language. In the next lesson, you will start to learn about Ainu verbs.


Created on 2023/2/10, Latest update on 2024/8/29