The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies (Classic Reprint)

The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies (Classic Reprint)
Author: Basil Hall Chamberlain
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2017-06-12
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780282407308

Excerpt from The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies If little is generally known either in Japan or in Europe concerning the natives of Yezo, the reason must be sought in the remoteness of the subject from topics of general interest. There is no lack of books dealing with the Hairy Ainos. Dr. Scheube has weighed and measured them. The Chevalier Heinrich von Siebold has beautifully pourtrayed their utensils. Miss Bird has described their customs in her picturesque style. Before the time of these foreign travellers, men like Nogami, Mamiya, and Matsuura had recorded in print their experiences oftravel in every accessible portion of the island. Other Japanese had described Aino manners, Aino superstitions and traditions. At least one Catholic missionary had penetrated into Yezo as early as the year 1617. Indeed, the Jesuit Father Froes had indicated, if not clearly asserted, the existence of the Ainos in a work published a.d. 1574. The catalogue of Japanese and European books on the subject, appended to the present Memoir, includes several hundreds of titles; and there doubtless still remain many others to be unearthed from the dust of old-fashioned libraries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Languages of Japan

The Languages of Japan
Author: Masayoshi Shibatani
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 1990-05-03
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9780521369183

A survey of the two main indigenous languages of Japan includes the most comprehensive study of the polysynthetic Ainu language yet to appear in English as well as a comprehensive analysis of Japanese linguistics.

Aino Folk-Tales

Aino Folk-Tales
Author: Basil Hall Chamberlain
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2019-12-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Experience the raw and uncensored tales of the Ainu culture with this collection of folk stories, first written down in 1888. These stories were transcribed directly from the original oral tradition, without the typical Westernization and censorship found in early English translations. Through these tales, readers will discover the unique customs and beliefs of the Ainu people, who reside on the northernmost Japanese island. Some of the featured titles are 'The Man Who Married the Bear-Goddess', 'The Stolen Charm', 'The Man Who Lost His Wife', and 'Sunrise'.

Handbook of the Ainu Language

Handbook of the Ainu Language
Author: Anna Bugaeva
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 742
Release: 2022-10-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1501502859

The volume is aimed at preserving invaluable knowledge about Ainu, a language-isolate previously spoken in Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kurils, which is now on the verge of extinction. Ainu was not a written language, but it possesses a huge documented stock of oral literature, yet is significantly under-described in terms of grammar. It is the only non-Japonic language of Japan and is typologically different not only from Japanese but also from other Northeast Asian languages. Revolving around but not confined to its head-marking and polysynthetic character, Ainu manifests many typologically interesting phenomena, related in particular to the combinability of various voice markers and noun incorporation. Other interesting features of Ainu include vowel co-occurrence restrictions, a mixed system of expressing grammatical relations, which includes the elements of a rare tripartite alignment, nominal classification distinguishing common and locative nouns, elaborate possessive classes, verbal number, a rich four-term evidential system, and undergrammaticalized aspect, which are all explained in the volume. This handbook, the result of unprecedented cooperation of the leading experts of Ainu, will definitely help to increase the clarity of our understanding of Ainu and in a long-term perspective may provide answers to problems of human prehistory as well as open the field of Ainu studies to the world and attract many new students. Table of Contents Masayoshi Shibatani and Taro Kageyama Preface Masayoshi Shibatani and Taro Kageyama Introduction to the Handbook of Japanese Language and Linguistics Contributors Anna Bugaeva Introduction I Overview of Ainu studies Anna Bugaeva 1. Ainu: A head-marking language of the Pacific Rim Juha Janhunen 2. Ainu ethnic origins Tomomi Satō 3. Major old documents of Ainu and some problems in the historical study of Ainu Alfred F. Majewicz 4. Ainu language Western records José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente 5. The Ainu language through time Alexander Vovin 6. Ainu elements in early Japonic Hidetoshi Shiraishi and Itsuji Tangiku 7. Language contact in the north Hiroshi Nakagawa and Mika Fukazawa 8. Hokkaido Ainu dialects: Towards a classification of Ainu dialects Itsuji Tangiku 9. Differences between Karafuto and Hokkaido Ainu dialects Shiho Endō 10. Ainu oral literature Osami Okuda 11. Meter in Ainu oral literature Tetsuhito Ōno 12. The history and current status of the Ainu language revival movement II Typologically interesting characteristics of the Ainu language Hidetoshi Shiraishi 13. Phonetics and phonology Hiroshi Nakagawa 14. Parts of Speech – with a focus on the classification of nouns Anna Bugaeva and Miki Kobayashi 15. Verbal valency Tomomi Satō 16. Noun incorporation Hiroshi Nakagawa 17. Verbal number Yasushige Takahashi 18. Aspect and evidentiality Yoshimi Yoshikawa 19. Existential aspectual forms in the Saru and Chitose dialects of Ainu III Appendices: Sample texts Anna Bugaeva 20. An uwepeker “Retar Katak, Kunne Katak” and kamuy yukar “Amamecikappo” narrated in the Chitose Hokkaido Ainu dialect by Ito Oda Elia dal Corso 21. “Meko Oyasi”, a Sakhalin Ainu ucaskuma narrated by Haru Fujiyama Subject index

Norito

Norito
Author: Donald L. Philippi
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 135
Release: 2020-06-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0691214522

This volume presents the only English translation of the prayers of Japan's indigenous religious tradition, Shinto. These prayers, norito, are works of religious literature that are basic to our understanding of Japanese religious history. Locating Donald Philippi as one of a small number of scholars who have developed a perceptive approach to the problem of "hermeneutical distance" in dealing with ancient or foreign texts, Joseph M. Kitagawa recalls Mircea Eliade's observation that "most of the time [our] encounters and comparisons with non-Western cultures have not made all the `strangeness' of these cultures evident. . . . We may say that the Western world has not yet, or not generally, met with authentic representatives of the `real' non-Western traditions." Composed in the stately ritual language of the ancient Japanese and presented as a "performing text," these prayers are, Kitagawa tells us, "one of the authentic foreign representatives in Eliade's sense." In the preface Kitagawa elucidates their significance, discusses Philippi's methods of encountering the "strangeness" of Japan, and comments astutely on aspects of the encounter of East and West.