In the earlier lessons, we have learned how to say simple sentences, like 'I go to my sister's place,' or 'it rains', or 'I eat sweets'. But what if we want to show how these sentences are related to each other? For example, 'It rains but I go to my sister's place and eat sweets' or 'I go to my sister's place (in order) to eat sweets even if it rains'. In this lesson, we learn about conjunctional particles or conjunctions and how to chain clauses together to form long sentences. We learn eleven most useful conjunctions for beginner learners of the Ainu language. There are many more and we will learn them later.
The conjunctions can be generally divided into different categories.
Coordinating conjunctions link together two or more words, clauses, or sentences (that is, conjuncts) that have an equal grammatical status. In the case of sentences, the two or more sentences can stand alone as sentences are are not dependent on each other. In English, typical coordinating conjunctions are 'and', 'but', 'yet,' 'or/nor,' and 'so'.
If coordinating conjunctions connect equal elements, subordinating conjunctions link together two clauses of which one is introduced as subordinate to the other. In English, common subordinating conjunctions include 'if,' 'because,' 'even if,' 'so that,' and 'though.' These are the types of conjunctions we learn in this lesson.
There are other types of conjunctions, too. Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions correlating two or more words. Typical English correlative conjunctions are 'both—and', 'either—or,' 'not only—but also,' and 'whether—or'. We will look at Ainu versions of these in a later lesson when we learn about adverbial particles.
Conjunctions of time express how the two or more events are temporally related to each other. We will look at these in the Lesson 12 with other expressions of the temporal order or distribution of an action.
Another related term to conjunctions is connectors, with which the speaker can arrange their utterances into a coherent speech and express their thoughts clearly. These are typically adverbs or adverbial phrases that can be used for example to add information ('in addition', 'moreover'), to contradict something ('however,' 'nevertheless'), to put focus on a certain thing ('especially,' 'in particular,' 'above all'), to rephrase what was said earlier ('in other words,' 'to put it differently,' 'namely') or to illustrate what has been said ('for example,' 'for instance'). Some of the conjunctions we learn here can be used as connectors, too, but we will learn more thoroughly about Ainu connectors in (much, much) later lesson.
Now, let's see how coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions work in Ainu.
The coordinating conjunctions in Ainu link two independent sentences together: <sᴇɴᴛᴇɴᴄᴇ 1> <ᴄᴏɴᴊᴜɴᴄᴛɪᴏɴ> <sᴇɴᴛᴇɴᴄᴇ 2>. Ainu sentences always end with a verb (or a sentence final particle, which haven't yet learned too much about), so the conjunctions are preceded by a verb. If put really simply, the coordinating conjunctions of Ainu introduced here have to equivalents in English: 'and' and 'but'. While there are several conjunctions in Ainu that can be simply translated as 'and' in English, in reality, however, they have much more nuanced meanings.
The conjunction wa is one of the most used and most versatile conjunctions in Ainu. Basically, it connects two verb phrases or clauses together to show that, in the speakers mind, there is some sort of connection or relationship between the two, whether temporal, causal, or just personal impression. In English, this is generally done by using the word 'and'. In Ainu, the main event is often in the last sentence and the preceding sentence(s) gives context or explain the main event.
Wa can show that (1) the events happen in temporal sequence ('and then'), or (2) just that the events are closely related but doesn't necessary put a lot of emphasis on the temporal order they happen ('and'), but (3) it can also show cause-effect relation between the events ('and as a result; and that's why'). The subject(s) of the the clauses connected with wa can be different (non-coreferential). Another use for wa is (4) to show the manner or aim of the action. The clause in front of wa expresses the manner/aim of the clause following wa. It is often used together with verbs movement (examples 6 and 7) but can be used with other types of verbs, too (example 8).
huci ihokusi or un arpa wa cep hok.
Grandma went to the market and bought some fish.
huci cep huraye wa orowa tuye wa ma.
Grandma washes the fish and then cuts and fries them.
tan kanpisos ku-kor wa kesto ku-nukar wa k-eramasu.
I have this book and I read it everyday and I like it.
hekaci suma osura wa ontaro hokus. (from Satō 2008: 45)
The boy threw a stone and (as a result) the barrel fell over.
k-oyra wa kusu ku-moyre.
I forgot and that's why I'm late.
e-apkas wa e-hosipi.
You came home walking. (Lit. You walked and came home.)
ekasi ku-nukar wa k-ek.
I go and see grandpa. (Lit. I see grandpa and come.)
cep e-e wa e-poro.
You grew up eating fish. (Lit. You ate fish and became big.)
From this lesson on, I've decided not to list all the words used in the example sentences because, 1) it takes a lot of time to make these vocabulary lists, and 2) this is the lesson number 8 and you should already be familiar with the words we have been using since the start of the course. So, I only list words that appear in this lesson for the first time or were used only once or twice in the preceding lessons. You can check the vocabulary list for the words that are not listed if you have forgotten them.
Example sentences 1 and 2 are examples of sequential events connected by wa: something happens and after that something else happens. In 2, the meaning of things happening one after another is emphasized with the adverb orowa 'and then; after that'. Example sentence 3 shows how wa can just loosely connect thoughts of the speaker into a complex sentence. Example sentences 4 and 5 show how wa can show cause and effect. To make the meaning of cause and effect even clearer, wa can be followed by kusu 'because; so; for that reason' (see more about kusu later in this lesson). Example 4 also illustrates how the subject of the connected clauses doesn't need to be the same in the both clauses: in the first clause it's the boy and in the second the barrel.
6, 7, and 8 are examples of the use of wa as means and aim. The structure in 7 can be a bit difficult to understand. It basically means that the person goes and does something and then comes back to the place where they are right now. In English, you would say 'go and do something' with the unsaid promise that you'll return to the place you are right now after you have gone and done that something. In Ainu, you don't say the go part but say explicitly that you are coming back after you are done.
If you remember what we have learned in the previous lessons, we have already encountered the word form wa a couple of times before: the ablative case particle wa(no) 'from' in lesson 6 and sentence final particle wa '[adds emphasis to what has been said]' in lesson 5. These are homonyms; they are not the same word. So, how do you know the difference? Well, now it's important to know the parts of speech of different words. Case particles come after nouns or noun phrases and conjunctions follow a verb. So, if you see a noun followed by wa, it's the case particle wa 'from', which is conveniently often in the form wano 'from'. If you see a verb followed by a wa, it can be either conjunction wa or the sentence final wa. As its name suggests, the sentence final wa is always at the end of a sentence, which is a position the two other wa's can't take, so it's easy to distinguish that way. A verb followed by wa and then another clause means that you have found the conjunction wa. And of course, the context and the meaning make it clear which wa is used.
By the way, this has been mentioned already earlier, but juxtaposition of nouns/noun phrases ('X and Y') is expressed in the Saru variety of Ainu just by listing the nouns (or noun phrases) without any particles in between them: kam cep kina k-e 'I eat meat, fish, and vegetables.' I have a tendency to put a comma between the nouns in writing to make it clear that I don't mean to form some sort of set phrase or compound by stacking up the nouns. So, my preferred writing style is kam, cep, kina k-e 'I eat meat, fish, and vegetables.' In many other dialects, the case particle newa is used for the purpose of juxtaposing.
The adverbial conjunction no '(not) doing and; (without) doing; by (not) doing' changes the whole verb phrase in front of it into an adverbial phrase. If used after a positive expression, no has many different meanings in English: something like 'by doing; so that; as (being something); while (being something)'. And after a negated verb, it means 'without doing'. This conjunction is actually the same as the adverbial suffix no we learned in the lesson 3, but instead just making the word immediately in front of it an adverb, the whole noun phrase or clause becomes adverbial. There are many cases in which the same word can be categorized as different subtype of part of speech in Ainu, and no is one of them.
No is usually seen after verbs in their negative form. While it is not wrong to use wa 'and' after a negative verb phrase, in majority of cases, no is used instead. The main difference seems to be whether the subject in the both sentences is the same or not. If it is the same, no is preferred, but if it's not, wa can be used. The use of no is similar in meaning to wa in the sense of expressing temporal sequence and the first clause/verb phrase proving additional information to the latter one.
somo ku-ipe no ku-hotke.
I went to bed without eating first. (Lit. I didn't eat and laid down / I laid down without eating)
e-nu ka somo ki no e-sikehe e-kor wa e-ahun (adapted from Tamura 1996)
You took your bags and went inside without listening. (Lit. Without listening, you took your luggage and entered.)
ku-caranke ka somo ki no ku-hosipi. (from Satō 2008: 44–45)
I went home without complaining. (Lit. Without complaining, I went back home.)
ponayay somo cis no mokor.
The baby sleeps without crying.
somo e-sinot no e-yayhonokka.
You don't play but rather study. (Lit. You study without playing)
The conjunction hine expresses sequence of events has occurred but does not take any stand on if the events are related in somehow or not. It just simply enumerates the events. It is probably very close in meaning to English 'and' in that sense. Hine brings two event together but much less loosely than wa: While wa implies that the events connected with it are closely related and represents them as a one action, the events connected with hine are not so.
micipa ku-kar hine ohaw or k-omare. (from Satō 2008: 44)
I picked some honewort (mitsuba) and put it in the stew.
toan menoko ek hine rewsi. (adapted from Tamura 2000: 152)
That woman came and will stay for the night.
Compare with: toan menoko ek wa rewsi. (That woman came to stay for the night.)
Unlinke wa, hine can also be at the start of a sentence.
hine ora kani hem ku-ye. (from Tamura 2000: 162)
And then I'll talk, too.
The conjunction ayne 'and finally; and at last' expresses that an action that has continued for a unusually long time has finally ended. The first sentence expresses the action that has continued for a long time and finally come to an end and the second sentence shows the resulting event that happens after the first event.
Ayne is often used together with the pattern <ᴠᴇʀʙ (ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ) 1> a <ᴠᴇʀʙ (ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ) 1> a '<ᴠᴇʀʙ (ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ) 1>ed and <ᴠᴇʀʙ (ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ) 1>ed' (as, in 'I cried and I cried') to emphasize the long duration of the first event. There are also idiomatic phrases, such as iki ayne 'with great pains; with much pain; with great trouble' and kar ayne 'with much effort; with hard work; striving', that have ayne as one the components. The adverb easir 'only after that; not until that' often follows ayne to strengthen its meaning.
ku-sitturaynu ayne neun poka ku-sirepa. (from Tamura 2000)
I got lost and finally I somehow arrived.
ku-iki ayne ku-kira wa k-ek. (from Tamura 1996)
With great pains, I ran away. (Lit. I did and finally I escaped and I came)
ponayay cis a cis a ayne mokor.
The baby cried and cried and at last fell asleep.
k-etaye a k-etayea k-etayea ayne easir sinrit turano k-etaye. (from Satō 2008: 44)
I pulled and pulled and pulled and finally after that I pulled it out with its roots.
The conjunction kor has several uses, so it's a very useful conjunction to learn. Its meanings and uses are somewhat overlapping, but I have divided kor in three different cases here: kor 'and (simultaneously)', kor 'while; when' and kor 'when; if'. If you want to think about them as three different conjunctions, you learn actually 13 conjunctions in this lessons instead of 11. If you want to think about kor as one word with one meaning, you can think it has always the meaning 'when' and you won't go wrong.
Here kor is given simply meaning 'and'. It's use resembles the use of conjunction wa 'and then' and its use (4) or using it to show the manner or aim of the action. Unlike wa, the actions kor connects are simultaneous. In this sense, this use of kor is very close to the meanings of kor 'while; when' and 'when; if' introduced below in the subordinating conjunctions sections, but in this use, the two events linked with kor are equal in status and the first event is not subordinated to the second one like in the two other uses of kor.
aptokar kor ek a wa. (from Satō 2008: 46)
S/he came while becoming soaking wet in the rain. (Lit. S/he got soaked by the rain and s/he came.)
kuni ku-ramu kor k-ek. (from Tamura 2000: 155)
That is what I was thinking when I came. (Lit. That I thought and I came)
k-okkewe arka kor ku-sapa ka arka. (from Tamura 2000: 155)
My neck hurts and my head also hurts.
ku-horipi kor en-nukar. (adapted from Tamura 2000: 155)
S/he looked at me when I was dancing.
The contrastive conjunction korka translates into 'but' in English and it expresses contrast and paradox between the two events it connects: "A happened but B happened". Etymologically, korka comes from kor 'when' and ka 'also; even', so it literally means 'even when'.
na ku-sinki korka ku-hopuni.
I'm still tired but I got up.
sirpirka korka somo e-soyne.
The weather is good but you don't go out.
emo poronno e-kor korka somo en-kore.
You have a lot of potatoes but you don't give any to me.
rera ruy korka somo mean.
The wind is strong but it's not cold.
ku-mataki toan amip sonno eramasu korka hok ka somo ki.
My little sisters liked that dress a lot but she didn't buy it.
Subordinating conjunctions connect two clauses or events of which one is introduced as subordinate to the other. The subordinated event comes before the conjunction and the main event comes after the conjunction.
The conjunction kus(u) expresses that there is an action of reason, aim, or intention motivating another action. Some people pronounce the word rather as kus than kusu and both are acceptable forms. I have a strong tendency to use the form kusu. Kus(u) has two main uses: to express reason ('because; for that reason') and the aim or goal of the action ('in order to').
kus(u) is used to connect clauses to give reason for the second clause, the reason or the cause being the first clause and the consequence the second. In English it translates to 'because; so; for that reason'. In most of the examples given here, I translate it as 'so', to keep the original order of the clauses. So, Ainu '<ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 1> kus(u) <ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 2>', turns into English '<ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 2> because <ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 1>' or '<ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 1> so <ᴄʟᴀᴜsᴇ 2>'.
kus(u) can be used to express the aim of doing something, especially when used together with verbs of movement (arpa 'to go', ek 'to come', hosipi 'to return', apkas 'to walk', etc.). The aim is in the first clause and how that aim is reached is in the second clause, for example, ihok kus(u) arpa 'She goes (in order) to buy'.
When followed by the copula ne 'to be', kus(u) refers to future intentions. In this case, the copula does not get any personal marker and actually the combination kusu ne (or kus ne) in the process of grammaticalization into an auxiliary. It might be better to treat it as one word: kusune/kusne 'be going to ~; to intend to ~; to plan to ~'. I just mention this use here and we will learn more about kusune/kusne in a future lesson (lesson 12 to be more precise).
As we learned at the beginning of this lesson, kus(u) 'because' can be used together with wa 'and then' in the form of wa kus(u) '(something happened) and because of that'. The clause preceding wa kus(u) is something that has actually happen and it highlights the reason or the cause that follows.
ekasi oyra kusu somo arpa.
Grandpa didn't go because he forgot (that he was supposed to go).
tanto sirwen kusu somo ku-soyne no cise onnay ta k-an.
Today the weather is bad, so I'll stay inside the house without going out.
hekaci mismu korka tokuye ek kusu tane mismu ka somo ki.
The boy was lonely but his friend came so he's no longer lonely.
tanpe pon kusu na sinep k-e kusune.
This is small, so I'm going to eat one more.
usa okaype e-hok kusu maciya or un e-ek.
You came to the city to buy many things.
k-unuhu k-onaha ku-nukar kusu k-arpa.
I went to see my mother and father.
Another use of the conjunction kor is to express two concurrent actions or two events that happen at the same time: to do something while doing something else. The first event is what happens simultaneously with the main event and the main event comes after kor. So, the order is the opposite to that of English.
This is an important particle in the formation of the progressive form in Ainu (as in k-apkas kor k-an 'I'm walking' (Lit. 'I exist while walking'), as usual, we will learn more about this later).
ku-ipe kor kanpisos ku-nukar.
I'm eating while reading a book.
e-cis kor e-ek.
You came crying. (Lit. you came while you cried)
iku kor sinotcaki kor an. (from Tamura 1996)
He is singing while drinking.
Next, we'll take a look at a few conjunctions that express condition. And yes, there are many of these! In this first lesson about conjunctions, we learn only three (most useful) of them.
The first conjunction of condition we learn here is... surprise! kor. This kor 'when; whenever (someones does something); if' expresses factual conditional. It means that whenever something is done or something happens, something else is sure to be done or happen. In English, it translates into 'when; whenever; if': "when A, then B", "whenever A, then certainly B", "if A, then B is sure to happen" etc. The first clause is the condition and the second clause is the result.
kesto an kor aynu itak k-eyaypakasnu.
Every day I study Ainu language. (Lit. when it's everyday, I study the Ainu language.)
apto as kor somo ku-soyne.
Whenever it rains, I won't go out.
sak rera ruy kor sirmeman, cuk rera ruy kor mean. (from Tamura 2000: 161)
When in summer the wind is strong, it's cool; when in autumn the wind is strong, it's cold.
The conjunction yakun 'if; if that's the case; in that case' expresses hypothetical conditional. Unlike kor that expresses that something will inevitably happen, when something else happens first, yakun expresses that something will happen, if something else happens first. The first clause defines the condition in which the second clause happens. Yakun can also be used at head of a sentence in the meaning of 'in that case; if that's the case, then'. In this case the set condition or premise is something said before.
icen ku-kor yakun poro cise ku-hok wa.
If I had money, I would buy a big house.
toan kur e-tura yakun somo k-ek.
If you take that person with you, I won't come.
ku-kor kanpisos e-nukar yakun e-eraman.
If you read my book, you'll understand.
hekattar nikonimu yakun iyaykipte.
It's dangerous for the children to climb on trees. (Lit. If children climb on trees, it's dangerous.)
The conjunction yakka 'even if; even though; supposing that' expresses suppositional condition. The clause before yakka shows the condition and the one following it shows the actual contradictory result.
Yakka can also be used at the start of the sentence to connect it with the previously stated things and can be translated as 'nevertheless; even so; and yet; however' in English.
Yakka is frequently used together with verbs pirka 'to be good' and wen 'to be bad'. The resulting combos yakka pirka and yakka wen are used to express (un)acceptability of the preceding action, in other words, to give or not to give permission to do something. We learn more about these in a later lesson about giving orders, requests, permission, and suggestions.
rera ruy yakka topenpe k-e kusu ku-sapo oro un k-arpa.
I go to my sister's place to eat sweets even if the wind is strong.
apto as yakka, upas as yakka, wakka poro yakka, sonno k-ek kusne wa. (from Tamura 1996 with small modifications)
Even if it rained, even if it snowed, even if there was a flood, I really will come!
e-sinki yakka e-nepki.
You work even though you are tired.
moyre yakka nisatta pakno ku-ki kusne.
I do it latest by tomorrow. (Lit. even if it's late, I'll do it by tomorrow.)
e-e yakka pirka.
You can eat it. / It's OK for you to eat it. (Lit. even if you eat it, it's good.)
The conjunction sekor is a complementizer, meaning it introduces a content clause for the verb phrase coming after it. The content clause is a citation or something the speaker is quoting. More specifically, sekor introduces a direct quote. In English, direct quotes are not marked with anything (eg. 'Mother said "Kids, come home!"') but in Ainu, you need to use sekor. In that sense it might be useful to think of sekor as 'that'. If you want to think so, notice that sekor can't be used to express a relative clause (ex. 'The boy that is standing there'); Ainu has different means to do that (see lesson 13).
The clause before sekor is the content of the quote and the clause after sekor shows how the quote is delivered. That's why sekor is mostly used before such verbs as ye '(VT) to say', hawean '(VI) to say', itak '(VI) to speak; to talk', hawas '(VA) the voice saying ... can be heard; to be said and heard', yaynu '(VI) to think; to believe; to guess', raman/ramuan '(VI) to think (badly, regrettably, etc.); to consider (doing)', inu '(VI) to hear', hotuyekar '(VT) to call out', uwepekennu '(VI) to ask (for explanation, about the details, etc.); to inquire', pisi '(VI) to ask (about something that is simple to answer)'; nuye '(VT) to write', siren '(VT) to invite someone to go together'. It is also used to mimic how animals sound, for example, dog's barking sound yawyaw 'woof woof'.
Etymologically sekor comes from se 'to give a sound; to say' and kor 'when; while', so sekor ye 'to say that' means literally 'to say while giving the sound ...' and sekor yaynu 'to think that' means literally 'to think while giving the sound...'.
There are two ways of directly quoting utterances that include any first person markers in Ainu. Because things become a bit complicated in those cases, I've kept things simple here and we'll learn more about quoting and citations later.
"pirka wa" sekor acapo ye kor soyne.
Uncle said "it's OK" while getting out.
"tan cepohaw sonno keraan" sekor ku-yaynu.
I think this salmon soup is really delicious.
seta "yawyaw" sekor mikmik.
The dog barks "woof woof".
The conjunction na 'so' is used when the speaker wants to suggest something to the listener order or request them to do. It's use is thus more limited than that of kusu 'because; so; for that reason', but on the other hand, kusu can rarely replace na. The clause before na gives reason for the suggestion, order, or request, and the clause coming after it is the actual request/order/suggestion, but sometimes you can see inverted order in the sentences, too.
The latter part (the request/suggestion) can also be omitted and in that situation na acts as a sentence final particle. If na ends the utterance and the last part is omitted, it's not a direct command but the speaker anyway expects a some sort of reaction or response of the listener.
We haven't learnt the imperative form of Ainu yet (later, later...), but the most simplest form is pretty starightforward, so let's just say here that the plain verb without subject marker attached can be used as an imperative. So, mokor! 'sleep!', ipe! 'eat!', en-kore! 'give (it) to me!', etc.
ku-kor pe perke na mosma p en-kore. (from Tamura 2000: 160)
Mine broke, so give me another one.
makiri e-kor wa e-sinot hi iyaykipte na. (adapted from Satō 2008: 73)
It's dangerous that you are holding a knife and playing (so, stop it).
Again, we have gone through a lot of contents in a long lesson. Here is a small recap to what we learned.
11 the most useful conjunctions for a beginner Ainu learner:
Conjunctions of succession: wa 'and then', no 'without (doing)', hine 'and', ayne 'and finally'
Conjunctions of simultaneous occurrence: kor 'while; when', no 'without (doing)'
Conjunctions of contrast and concession: korka 'because', yakka 'even if', na 'so'
Conjunctions of condition
(1) factual condition: kor 'whenever; when; if'
(2) hypothetical condition: yakun 'if; if that's the case'
Conjunctions of reason and purpose: kusu 'for that reason; in order to'
Conjunctions of quotation: sekor '(direct quote)'
Some of the conjunctions can start a sentence connecting it to what has been said previously
Can start a sentence: hine, yakun, yakka, kusu, sekor
Can't start a sentence: wa, no, ayne, kor (any of them), korka (?), na
In the next lesson, we'll learn more about Ainu verbs.
Created on 2024/8/29, Latest update on 2025/2/12