Page:An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language).djvu/627

Rh “to make a noise”; hence,, “to squeal”; , a diminative [sic] particle, as for example, , “a very little thing”;  “a child.” Hence  “a hare,” lit: “the little squeallersquealer [sic].” But why call a hare by this name! Let anyone wound or catch a hare in a trap and he will soon learn. The squeal of a hare is not easily foregottenforgotten [sic] any more than the bark of a wolf; and a “wolf is called in Ainu, “the divinity who calls ,” the being an onomatpœia for its bark.

Having thus shown the manner in which Ainu words are built up it would be interesting for any person acquainted with some of the many dialects of China or with Tibetian [sic] or kindred languages to superimpose the tones he knows on each syllable of the Ainu contained in this book and see what the result would be. Let him, if he chooses, write or pronuncepronounce [sic] the Ainu words as follows:—When commences a word let it be tch, or if found in the body of a word pronounce it as throughthough [sic] it waswere [sic] j, or z, or tz: Thus for  write tchi, ji, or tzi; or for che, let it be je, ze, or tze. Again, let him write k as though it waswere [sic] kh or hk, gh or hg; or even as ch in some cases. P too might be aspirated and pronounced like ph; while t, like k, might even sometimes be changed into ch. All of these variations I have heard and do hear among the Yezo Ainu, both with and without tones slightly present. The tones however, are much more marked among the women than among the men. And it may also be remarked here that as among other barbarous races, so also among the Ainu, the women speak their language much more clearly and purely than the men. But alas, the language is fast dying out among both sexes; nay, it is to all intents and purposes dead. The language of to-day is not the same as that of 28 years ago when the present writer first commenced his studies and work among this people.

The gradual weakening of tones in Ainu till they have become lost and inessential may be sufficiently accounted for by the combination and assimilation of roots which the language has been undergoing for ages. We have present day examples of this very thing in those Chinese words and phrases adopted and