Page:An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language).djvu/579

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ANCIENT JAPANESE AND AINU COMPARED.
21

Province. But the Ainu have no other word for “knife” of the kind intended. It is the common word for knife in Saghalien Island.

japanese. ainu.
Nobori, “a hill.” Nupuri, “a mountain.” There is no other word in Ainu by which a great mountain can be designated. The roots of this word are nup, “plain,” u, a plural particle, and ri “high.” Nupuri may therefore mean either, “cast up from the plains”; or “cast up plains.”
Nomi, “to worship." Nomi, “to offer libations.”
Nu, “to be.” Ne, “is.”
Nuru, “to paint.” Nore, “to paint.”
Nusa, anciently, “pieces of silk or paper or bamboo used as offering to the gods.” Nusa, “offerings of whittled sticks and shavings made to the gods and demons.” Nusa is a plural word the singular of which is inao. Inao is from the root ina, “a message,” “a prayer”; and o, “to bear.” Hence inao is simply a “message” or “request “bearer,” nusa being its plural form.[1]
Ogi, “a fan.” Anki; Anunki; Aungi, “a fan.” Translated literally an-un-ki, means “to do unto,” probably referring to the process of drawing the fan to ones'self. Both forms of the word are used in both Yezo and Saghalien.
Omushi, “the place where the Emperor sits.” Om-ushi;[2] “a seat.” The roots are om, the “thighs,” and ushi, “a putting place.”

  1. See the Ainu and their Folklore Cpts. IX.–XII.
  2. Compare also momo Jap. “thighs.”