Descriptive Study on the Sakhalin Dialect of Ainu

没有文字系统的阿伊努语目前正处于消失的边缘，因为它的使用者已经减少到少数老年人。然而，尽管对阿伊努语的语言学研究是一项非常重要的研究，但它涉及到日语的起源和结构等基本问题，但能够成为语言分析对象的描述性准确资料却很少。本研究的目的是收集和描述阿伊努语的库页方言（该语言的三种方言之一，另外两种是北海道方言和千岛群岛方言）直接从该方言的最后一位发言者那里获得的数据。最后一个说库页岛爱语的人是浅井武，一位87岁的盲人妇女，目前住在北海道飞隆-蒙别津的敬老院。她记得大量的阿伊努口头文学传统，即民间故事和史诗，能够正确地再现它们，并愿意与本研究人员合作。我认识浅井武是在我作为一名研究项目“基于波尔苏斯基材料的日本北部文化研究”（1984-1985年，主管Katoo kyuzoo）的研究员，在北海道旅行，寻找说萨赫林阿伊努语的人的时候。浅井武，尽管她已经完全失明，而且年事已高，但身体很好。她为我复制了一些有价值的阿伊努人口头文学作品，并愿意帮我检查我的描述。这样得到的结果可以分为以下几个方面：(1)口头文学，如民间故事；(2)基本词汇；(3)语法。第一组出版为“库页岛阿伊努语口语文本1”。接下来的两组数据将由本研究人员稍后介绍。

The Ainu language which has no writing system is presently on the verge of disappearance, since its speakers have been reduced to a small number of the aged. However, in spite of the fact that linguistic research on Ainu is a very important one, being related to such essential problems as the origin and the structure of the Japanese language, accurate data of descriptive nature which can become object of a linguistic analysis are scarce.The purpose of the present research was to collect and describe data on the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, (one of the theree dialects of this language, the other two being the Hokkaido and the Kurile Islands dialects) obtained directly from the last surviving speaker of this dialect.The last person speaking Sakhalin Ainu is Asai Take, a 87 year-old blind woman, presently living in the home for the elderly people in Hidaka-Monbetsu, Hokkaido. she remembered a great number of pieces of Ainu oral literary tradition, namely folk tales and epic poems, was able to reproduce them correctly and willingly cooperated with the present researcher.I met Asai Take when, as a researcher assigned to the research project named "Studies on Nothern Cultures arround Japan Based on Polsudski's Materials" (1984-1985, supervisor Katoo Kyuuzoo), I was travelling arround Hokkaido in search of speakers of the Sakhlin Ainu.Asai Take, in spite of her complete blindness and age, was in good health. She reproduced for me valuable pieces of Ainu oral literature and willingly helped me to check my description.The results thus obtained may be divided into data on (1) oral literature, e.g. falk tales, (2) basic vocabulary, (3) grammar. the first group was published as "ORAL TEXTS OF SAKHALIN AINU 1". The next two groups of data will be introdued by the present researcher later.