Ainu/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Adverb

Adverbs in Ainu <adv> seem to be created from adding suffixes to adjectives:

• ashiri<adv> ↔ ashin'no
• son<adv> ↔ sonno
• moire<adv> ↔ moire-tara
• ratchi<adv> ↔ ratchi-tara

Article

Although there is no proper article in Ainu, the numeral adjective «shine» can be used as an indefinite article, for which we will use the tag <det> to denote determiner and <ind> to denote indefiniteness.

• ainu<det> ↔ shine ainu (a man)
• chisei<det> ↔ shine chisei (a house)
• chikoikip<det> ↔ shine chikoikip (an animal)

However, «shine» is also used to denote one of a thing (denoted by the tag <sg>) varying by context:

• ainu<sg> ↔ shine ainu "one man"
• shiwentep<sg> ↔ shine shiwentep "one woman"

For the definite article (<def> the demonstrative adjective «nei» is sometimes used:

• guru<det><def> ↔ nei guru "(the) person"
• chep<det><def> ↔ nei chep "(the) fish"

Noun

Nouns (<n>) in Ainu do not undergo any morphological processes to denote number, gender, or case.

• ainu<n><sg><dim> ↔ {{{2}}}
• attush<vblex> ↔ attush-kara (from "cloth" to "to weave")
• chisei<vblex> ↔ chisei-kara (from "a house" to "to build a house")
• hau<vblex> ↔ hau-koro (from "the voice" to "to crow; to bark; to neigh")
• honi<vblex> ↔ honi-koro (from "the stomach" to "to conceive")
• kaya<vblex> ↔ kaya-koro (from "a sail" to "to sail"