Wendish in Ainu
The following list (attached at bottom of page as a PDF file) was compiled on the basis of an admittedly rather superficial reading of J. Batchelor's Ainu-English-Japanese English Dictionary and Grammar, 4th Edition, published by Iwanami in 1938.
What I find most interesting is that the Ainu language, as some ancient Asia Minor languages, already contains a vocabulary of what later became a part of various modern European languages, though solidly based, grammatically and linguistically, on what we know as modern Wendish dialects.
In the following list, I quote the Ainu words first, in capitals, followed by a translation in lower case. In square brackets are Wendish equivalents or cognates, then their translation in English. In some cases, I add also cognates from other Indo-European languages, to show that they were part of the Wendish vocabulary already in ancient times, before the modern Indo-European languages were formed, all based on Wendish. At times, I mention also unrelated terms which I have found interesting that may give clues to which other languages may have influenced the Ainu vocabulary.
Note that I write Wendish words as they are pronounced in English, and not s they are spelled in Wendish, to make it easier for those who do not speak a Wendish dialect. For example, "j" as in English "jaw", and not "ž". Bear also in mind that in Ainu, as well as in most American native languages, letters "sh" and "s" stand also for other sibilants, like "z", "ch" and "j". Because Wendish "v" is almost always pronounced as the English "w", I use the "w" when I write Wendish words. I write them as they are pronounced, not as they are written in the artificial "literary" language.
The following list (attached at bottom of page as a PDF file) was compiled on the basis of an admittedly rather superficial reading of J. Batchelor's Ainu-English-Japanese English Dictionary and Grammar, 4th Edition, published by Iwanami in 1938.
What I find most interesting is that the Ainu language, as some ancient Asia Minor languages, already contains a vocabulary of what later became a part of various modern European languages, though solidly based, grammatically and linguistically, on what we know as modern Wendish dialects.
In the following list, I quote the Ainu words first, in capitals, followed by a translation in lower case. In square brackets are Wendish equivalents or cognates, then their translation in English. In some cases, I add also cognates from other Indo-European languages, to show that they were part of the Wendish vocabulary already in ancient times, before the modern Indo-European languages were formed, all based on Wendish. At times, I mention also unrelated terms which I have found interesting that may give clues to which other languages may have influenced the Ainu vocabulary.
Note that I write Wendish words as they are pronounced in English, and not s they are spelled in Wendish, to make it easier for those who do not speak a Wendish dialect. For example, "j" as in English "jaw", and not "ž". Bear also in mind that in Ainu, as well as in most American native languages, letters "sh" and "s" stand also for other sibilants, like "z", "ch" and "j". Because Wendish "v" is almost always pronounced as the English "w", I use the "w" when I write Wendish words. I write them as they are pronounced, not as they are written in the artificial "literary" language.
| wendish_in_ainu_list.pdf |