Högre seminarium:
Anna Bugaeva, Tokyo University of Science

Seminarietitel: Ainu as a Circum-Pacific language: Evidence from appositive possession.

Abstract (engelska)

Ainu, a language isolate indigenous to the Japanese archipelago, has a head-marking, polysynthetic, and incorporating profile that distinguishes it structurally from Japanese and most other Northeast Asian languages. This talk explores Ainu’s possible connections to the Circum-Pacific linguistic area through appositive possession, a rare construction that is approximately 18 times more likely to develop in Circum-Pacific language families than elsewhere and is particularly susceptible to areal diffusion through cultural and economic contact networks (Bugaeva, Nichols, and Bickel 2022).

In appositive possession, a possessor is indexed not directly on the possessed noun but on a separate classificatory element, often a noun, specifying use or relationship, as in Cupeño (Uto-Aztecan): awal ne-ʔash (dog 1SG-pet) ‘my dog’, lit. ‘dog my-pet’. The rarer verbal type uses possessor-indexed verbs such as ‘have’, ‘receive’ etc. Ainu independently attests this type: only obligatorily possessed nouns, such as body parts, take possesive marking directly, whereas non-possessible nouns require a pre-head relative clause, as in ku-kor seta ‘my dog’, lit. ‘dog (that) I-have’, an appositive construction.

Ainu oral narratives attest additional classificatory verbs, suggesting an earlier, richer system. Comparisons across Oceania and the Americas reveal expansion and reduction of classifier systems associated with historical contact. Head-marking morphology and possessibility oppositions appear to be prerequisites; no clear cases of independent origin have been identified.

Future research will test the hypothesis that Ainu is a remnant of an ancient, linguistically diverse North Asian Circum-Pacific stratum with appositive possession, predating the post-Neolithic spread of Inner Asian-type language families. Some of Ainu’s sister languages may have crossed into subglacial North America. By comparing structural features, we aim to identify which American language groups show the closest affinities with Ainu and to attempt to distinguish potential genealogical signals from areal diffusion.

The seminar is held in English.