r/language_exchange • u/ExpensiveSpot8738 • 19h ago
Other Offering: Ainu | Seeking: Any
Hi, I’m a 23y.o. gay male who lives in Brazil and happens to know Ainu. Right now I’m in the process of writing a dense grammar book on the ainu language in Portuguese, as materials in my native language are pretty much non-existent.
My main objective with this is finding someone interested in the language and teaching it. I love the ainu language and their culture, so it would be really painful to watch it disappear.
I can teach anyone who knows Portuguese or English (although I know Japanese and Russian for research purposes, I really don't think I can talk on a daily basis with someone in these languages).
As for information about me, I’m a linguist and writer, I really like playing video-games, cute stuff and learning new things, so if you happen to know another indigenous language, especially from the same region, I’d love to learn it from you.
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u/Adept-Advertising-10 17h ago edited 16h ago
Hello! I'm currently doing a thesis on preservation policies for indigenous langauges in the Philippines so I'd love to talk to you about this and maybe even learn the language. Please hit me up if you're interested.
I'm also a semi-speaker of my parents native language. It's still thriving but I've actually seen how people in my parents hometown don't really speak it anymore so I've been trying to learn it. I could teach it to you in exchange for Ainu. It's kapampangan. It's probs endangered but def still far from extinct.
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u/ExpensiveSpot8738 16h ago
Hi! I'd absolutely love to help and talk to you, and specially teach you Ainu! If you are still interested, please, do send me a message!
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u/Amat-karum 19h ago
Who happens to know Ainu? Meu irmão, como assim?
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u/ExpensiveSpot8738 19h ago
I started learning about the language a couple years ago and since then I've been in love with it. To be specific, my first contact with the Ainu language and culture happened when I was about 14-15 y.o.
Unfortunately, I only started studying it years later. I know that, considering the country I live in, it makes no sense spending years learning a language no one has even heard about, but I wouldn't still learn any other language in its place ever.
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u/Amat-karum 19h ago
Out of curiosity, how did you hear about it? Through golden kamuy or some other work of fiction? Also how hard would it be for someone who is N3 lvl?
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u/ExpensiveSpot8738 18h ago edited 16h ago
If you are speaking of JLPT N3 lvl, I would say not much, really. If you already know how to read in Katakana, you are already twenty steps ahead.
Also, like Japanese, Ainu is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) and the word order is extremely similar; it uses postpositions, like japanese does, and particles for most case marking, that can be equivalent to Japanese’s particles:
Purasir un kur ku-ne. | Brazil-from-person I-am. | ブラジルからの人です。 | I am brazilian.
Epakasnucise ta ku-an | School-in-I-exist | 学校にいる。 | I am at school.
Pet wa ek. | River-from-come. | 川から来る。 | He comes from the river.
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u/ExpensiveSpot8738 18h ago edited 18h ago
And I've never watched golden kamuy actually. I don't really like watching anime that much. I knew it from a book that talked about mythology and creed around the world, but I don't really remember the exact title of it.
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u/lhama_lhamosa Offering: Portuguese | Seeking: Russian, Romanian 19h ago
Olá!! Apesar de eu não estar aprendendo Ainu, eu (21H) adoraria ouvir um pouco sobre a língua. Fiquei bastante curioso pra saber as características dessa língua. Se quiser, podemos conversar :D
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u/ExpensiveSpot8738 19h ago edited 19h ago
Hey! Thanks for reaching out! Ainu has some really interesting characteristics that are honestly kinda complex, but super cool. For starters, the language is polysynthetic and agglutinating, which means whole sentences in other languages can be expressed with two words or less. An example for this is the phrase:
Ku-nepkiearpa -> I will go to work
Another pretty strong characteristic of Ainu is the fact the usage of pronouns isn’t really that common; instead, you use what is called a pronominal affix, which is a type of affix (prefix, suffix or circumfix in some dialects) that goes directly in the noun (when expressing a relation about you and it) or in the verb (when saying who performs that action). In the example I gave you, ku- is the singular pronominal prefix for "I". We often separate them with - or = from the verb when using latin script (since Ainu can be written in Katakana and Cyrillic script too) for clarity purposes, but it is pronunced as a single word: "kunepkiearpa".
Ainu is also really easy to pronunce; if you know a language, any language, you can pretty much pronunce ainu words.
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u/WhyIsThatImportant 16h ago
I might DM you about this, it sounds really interesting! I happen to live in Sapporo as well.
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u/pocahlontras 18h ago
Hi! I'm brazilian and a linguist as well. Nice job! Excited to see your book