Page:An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language).djvu/621

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There are, however, a few interesting differences well worthy of a passing note and among them are such as these for example. In one district we have the word for “to-morrow,” while in another we hear  used. really means “dawn” but it has gradually come to stand for “to-morrow”—indeed, so firmly is this meaning now attached to it that in most places is quite unintelligible to the people. Yet it is of interest to remark that is ordinarily used in Saghalien for “to-morrow” and appears all over Yezo in the words, “the second day after to-morrow” and oyashimshinge, "the second day after to-morrow.” Or again, in the Saru district the ordinary word for “father” is  and for “mother,” . But in some villages in the Mukawa district, and not so much as ten English miles away from Piratori,  stands for “mother,” and  for “father”! Further, although in Piratori the word  means “mother,” yet at Piraka, only four miles lower down the Saru river, the word commonly used for “father” is ! This is very strange, but is a fact notwithstanding. In some other places the ordinary word for “father” is . In Saghalien also the usual word is . In Yezo the usual word for “rain” is  while in Saghalien and Kamtchatka  or  is used. But  means “aqueous” as a rule and in rare casecases [sic] “rain” among the Yezo Ainu. , “fine rain” belongs to the same root.

There is, however, one other difference to be noted. It consists in accents or the pronunciation of words. There are in many villagevillages [sic] in YozoYezo [sic], more formerly than now, quite a number of people who speak their words with a slight tonic accent as though the language waswere [sic] originally connected with Chinese or some kindred tongue. But there is this very in pertant difference; [sic] in speaking Chinese it is absolutely necessary to enunciate the tones clearly for they are part and parcel of the word itself. Among the Yezo Ainu this is not the case now whatever it