PLACE-NAMES.
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| Jap’se Pronunciation. | Ainu Form. | Derivation and Meaning. | |
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part of a river or mountain or portion of the sea coast. Not means “jaw,” and is applied to “blunt capes.” The correlative term for lower is pange. | |||
| Betchaku | Pet-chak-kotan | “The dry place,” or “the place without a river.” Pet besides meaning “river” also means “wet.” The roots are Pe, “water” (almost always undrinkable), and ot, “to be.” Chak means “without” and kotan “place” or “village.” But this may also mean “the place where the river pops out.” | |
| Bibai | Pipa-i | This name may mean either “the place of the swamp” or “the place of the bivalve Anodonta.” | |
| Bibaushi | Popa-ushi-i | “The place of the bivalve Anodonta.” Pipa is the Anodonta, ushi is the “place where anything is.” The pip in the previous words most likely means “swamp.” But pipa may also be a shell of the margaritana species. | |
| Bibi | Pip-i or Pepe | If pip-i, “swamp place,” but if pepe “damp” or “watery.” | |
| Biratori | Piratoru kotan | “The village by the path of the cliff lake.” The village is said to have been so called because of a large lake which once existed near the place. The remnant of the lake, which I myself saw some 26 years ago, has now been completely washed away by the floods. But, on very many occasions I have beard this place called Pir'uturu kotan, i.e. “the village between the cliffs”; and this name exactly agrees with the situation. Moreover in Saghalien Ainu the very word Biruturu occurs which Dobrotvorski translates by “an open space.” | |
| Biro | Piro-nai | “Cliff valley.” In full this name would be Pira-o-nai. | |
| Birochinai | Pirochi-nai | The plural form is Pirot- | |
