The first person singular object—en-

We have learned earlier that when the 1st person or 'I' is the one who is doing things, we need to attach the person marker ku- in front of the verb. But when the first person is the target (direct object) or receiver of the actions (indirect object), we don't use ku- but en- '(to) me' instead.

Now starts the confusing part: when the 1st person is the object and the 2nd or the 3rd person is the subject, the subject is not explicitly shown on the verb with a person marker. In other words, only the 1st person object is marked with en-. This means that you have infer the subject from the context: is it the 2nd person (you, both singular and plural) or 3rd person (s/he, it, or they)?

Examples 1

1. toankur ku-kor ekasi ne. aynu itak en-epakasnu. That person is my grandpa. He teaches me Ainu.

2. hay! tan matkaci en-kik! Ouch! This girl hit me!

3. iyayraykere! poronno topenpe en-kore. Thank you! You gave me a lot of sweets.

Vocabulary 1

• toankur (N) — that person
• ku- (PM) — the first person singular subject marker, 'I do'
• kor (VT) — to have something; to own something; to possess something
• ekasi (N) — grandpa; grandfather; elderly man
• ne (COP) — to be
• aynu itak (N) — Ainu language
• en- (PM) — the first person singular object marker, 'me', 'to me'
• epakasnu (VD) — to teach something to someone; to tell something to someone
• hay (INT) — (said when tired or in pain) oh; ah; ouch
• tan (DET) — this
• matkaci (N) — girl
• kik (VT) — to hit
• topenpe (N) — sweets
• poronno (ADV) — a lot; much; many; greatly
• kore (VD) — to give something to someone
• iyayraykere (EXP) — thank you

Let's look closer to the examples and how do we know who is the subject. When we start the analysis, it's probably the best to start with the verb and figure out how many arguments the verb wants. 

In the example number 1, aynu itak en-epakasnu, the verb is epakasnu 'to teach', which is a ditransitive verb. As we learned in the lesson number 3, ditransitive verbs require three arguments (subject, indirect object, and direct object), so we have to identify those three. The phrase starts with the word aynu itak 'Ainu language', which isn't probably someone who can teach or be taught something, so we can assume we have found our direct object. The person marker en- 'me' is an object marker, too, but since we can have only one direct object, that must be the indirect object or the receiver of the action. So, now we know that the Ainu language is taught to me, but by whom? If we only look at the phrase aynu itak en-epakasnu, we can't know who the one teaching is. However, the grandfather of the speaker is mentioned before the phrase, so we can safely assume the teacher is the grandfather.

The second example (tan matkaci en-kik) is easy: the verb is kik 'to hit', which is a transitive verb, so we need to find the two arguments (subject and object) the verb takes. The person marker en- is attached to the verb, so it must be the object. The subject also is clearly stated before the verb: tan matkaci 'this girl'.

The third example, poronno topenpe en-kore, has again a ditransitive verb, kore 'to give', so we need to figure out what those are. If we look at what we have in front of the verb, there's first the word poronno 'much; many; a lot of'. It's an adverb, so it does not count as an argument, and we don't need to care about it when doing the analysis. The next word is topenpe 'sweets', which is most likely not someone who gives something or someone who receives something, so we can establish it as our direct object. The person marker en- 'me' must then be the indirect object. Again, we have to figure out the subject from the context. The utterance starts with iyayraykere 'thank you'. Usually, when you say thank you like this, it's directed to the listener(s), not to a person/people who are not present. If you mean to thank someone who is not in the place, you would say their name or somehow refer to that person/people. So, if we assume the listener is the person who is thanked, the listener (you) is also the person who gave the sweets to the speaker (I).

In an earlier lesson, we used the allegory of "slots and pockets" to explain how the arguments of the Ainu verbs are arranged around the verbs. Again, you can just skip this part, if it feels too complicated. Now, if we think about the slots and pockets, our example verbs look as follows. Just a reminder that ∅ is a zero mark used by linguists to mark absence of a word. 

• aynu itak en-epakasnu: epakasnu 'to teach' is a ditransitive verb, so it has three slots (S) before it and three pockets (P) attached to the verb itself:

  • [S1] [S2] [S3] [P1]-[P2]-[P3]-epakasnu. S1 and P1 are a pair and they refer to the same argument. The same goes with S2 & P2 and S3 & P3. As a rule of thumb, the first slot/pocket is filled with the subject, the second with the indirect object (the receiver of the action), and the third with the direct object (the target of the action).

  • In the example sentence, the slots and pockets are filled like this: [S1: ∅] [S2: ∅] [S3: aynu itak] [P1: ∅]-[P2: en]-[P3: ∅]-epakasnu

  • The slot/pocket 1 look as if it is empty here. As explained earlier, en- alone can mean 'you [verb] (to) me' or  'she/he/it/they [verb] (to) me', so it fills both S1/P1 and S2/P2 in this case.

• tan matkaci en-kik: kik 'to hit' is a transitive verb, so it has two slots and pockets. The first slot/pocket takes the subject, and the second the object.

  • [S1] [S2] [P1]-[P2]-kik.

  • In the example sentence, the slots and pockets are filled like this: [S1: tan matkaci] [S2: ∅] [P1: ∅]-[P2: en]-kik

• topenpe en-kore: kore 'to give' is a ditransitive verb, so it has three slots and pockets, like our first example.

  • [S1] [S2] [S3] [P1]-[P2]-[P3]-kore.

  • In the example sentence, the slots and pockets are filled like this: [S1: ∅] [S2: ∅] [S3: topenpe] [P1: ∅]-[P2: en]-[P3: ∅]-kore.

Note! Even though the verb is a ditransitive verb and it has three pockets, only two of the pockets can be filled with person markers. It's not possible to say something like 'I give us to you' (which is a weird thing to say anyway) in Ainu by just filling the verb pockets with corresponding subject and object person markers.

The second person singular object—eci- or e-

We learned in the lesson 2, the subject person marker for the second person singular (you) is e-. The object marker, however, has different forms depending on the subject's person: if the subject is the first person (I), the second person object marker is eci- and if the subject is the third person (s/he, it, they), the object marker looks the same as the subject maker: e-. 

The 1st person subject + 2nd person object marker -eci works the same way as en- for 2nd person subject + 1st person object marker and fills in the position of both arguments. If you remember what we learned in the lesson three about using the 2nd person subject marker e-, you might wonder now: "How am I supposed to know whether e- means 2nd person subject or object when used with the third person?". Well, the answer is again the context. Actually, figuring out who is the subject and who is the object is indeed one of the most confusing parts of the Saru variety of Ainu.

Examples 2

4. tanpe eci-kore na. I give this to you (so have it).

5. eci-ahupte wa. I'll let you in.

6. kanpisos e-kore.* She gave the book to you./She gave you the book.

7. sisam itak e-epakasnu.* He teaches Japanese to you.

8. hekaci esinotpe e-kore.* The boy gave you the toy.

Vocabulary 2

• tanpe (N) — this
• eci- (PM) — the first person singular subject marker + the second person singular object marker, 'I to you', 'I xxx you'
• kore (VD) — to give something to someone
• na (PRT) — [A sentence final particle that adds force to what is said and expresses a reason for a request. The request itself is omitted: "I give you this so (take/have/eat it etc.)"]
• ahupte (VT) — to let someone in; to put something in
• wa (PRT) — [a sentence final particle that adds emphasis to what has been said.]
• kanpisos (N) — book
• e- (PM) — the third person singular subject marker + the second person singular object marker, 'she/he/it/they to you', 'she/he/it/they xxx you'
• sisam itak (N) — Japanese language
• epakasnu (VD) — to teach something to someone; to tell something to someone
• hekaci (N) — boy
• esinotpe (N) — toy

All the example sentences marked with an asterisk can be interpreted either as "you give/teach (to) him/her/it/them" or "she/he/it/they give/teach (to) you". In these examples, there is very little context to interpret the meaning, but because this section is about learning the second person object marker, I have translated the examples with the second person as object as I pleased.

The third person singular object—∅- (zero)

The thrid person singular object marker is zero (∅), meaning that the object is not marked in any visible way on the verb. This is actually something we have already covered in the second lesson on expressing actions in Ainu, but let's review it here for the completeness. When the subject is the 1st person singular and the object is 3rd person singular, ku- is attached to the verb. When the subject is the 2nd person singular and the object 3rd person singular, e- is attached to the verb.

Examples 3

9. e-kor icen e-isamka. You lost your money.

10. k-akihi k-omap. I cherish my little brother.

11. kor unarpe sisam itak e-pakasnu. You teach her aunt Japanese.

12. moyuk ku-nukar. I saw a tanuki.

13. yuk kam e-eramasu. You like venison.

Vocabulary 3

• e- (PM) — (1) the 2nd person SG subject marker; 'You do' (2) your (3) the 2nd person SG object marker + 3rd person SG subject marker
• kor (VT) — to have something; to own something; to possess something
• icen (N) — money
• isamka (VT) — to lose something
• k- (PM) — [used before words starting with a, e, o, or u] (1) the first person singular subject marker; 'I do' (2) my 
• akihi (N-AFF) — (someone's) younger brother
• omap (VT) — [used when talking about children] cherish someone; to show one's love to someone; to caress someone
• moyuk (N) — tanuki; raccoon dog
• ku- (PM) — [used before words starting with a consonant or with an i] (1) the first person singular subject marker; 'I do' (2) my
• nukar (VT) — to see something; to look at something
• yuk kam (N) — venison
• eramasu (VT) — to like something/someone

Next we will return to nouns and see how we can express other cases than the subject, direct object, and indirect object in Ainu. See more in the lesson 6 about case particles.

Created on 2023/2/17, Latest update on 2024/8/23