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PLACE-NAMES.
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as in some cases pointed out its applicability to the place in question. One thing, however, should not be overlooked, and that is the fact that the Japanese have in some cases taken the name and applied it to a locality perhaps some miles away to which it can by no manner of means apply. But this does not spoil the word or name as an Ainu cognomen.
| Jap’se Pronunciation. | Ainu Form. | Derivation and Meaning. | |
| Abashiri | Apa-shiri kotan | “Fish-spear-head land.” Ap is the head of a fish spear: a is a singular form of the verb of existence. By another derivation this name may mean “Door-land.” Possibly the entrance from Saghalien. Apa means “door-way” or “entrance,” “the open mouth of a river when looked out from the sea.” | |
| Abetsu | A-pet | “The river tine.” A is a prong of a fork or “tine”: pet is “river.” | |
| Abira | A-pira | “Tine cliff.” Pira is the usual word for “cliff.” | |
| Abuta | Ap-uta kotan | “The place of fish-spear-heads.” Ap “fish-spear-head”: u a plural form of the verb of existence expressing the idea of mutuality; ta a locative particle. This village is so called on account of some prominent rocks close by which much resemble fish spear-heads in shape. There is also an apu which means “floe” or “broken up sea ice,” and which word is also used in Saghalien. | |
| Ai | Aikotan | “Thorn place.” | |
| Aibetsu | There are four places called by this name among the Japanese each of which is different in Ainu. The first is A-pet “the river tine” given above. The second is Ai-pet “the river arrow” or “thorn.” The third is Aibe-ush-nai “the stream containing the sea-ear” (Haliotis tuberculata). The fourth is Ai-pet-ush-nai “the valley containing the river arrow.” | ||
