Is Ainu similar to Japanese in terms of structure and/or phonology?

situated at the northernmost portion of lacquer and almost proxemic to Russia, the island of Hokkaido is home to a Japanese ethnic minority called the Ainu. Currently, although the Ainu is a distinguished ethnicity, they are chiefly considered Japanese. Historically, Hokkaido was Ainu territory until Japan became a full jurisdiction of Japan in 1879 (Sugimoto, 61).Prior to the establishment of a Japanese government in Hokkaido and eventide near years after the regime, the Ainu maintained a lifestyle that was distinctively their admit even over the new century, in that respect hold back had problems in foothold of the recognition of the Ainu as indigenous peoples instead of Japanese.Culturally, the Ainu finish is different from Japan although due to the diminishment of the population of the decades, in addition to the assimilation of the Ainu descents to the Japanese culture, at some point the Ainu seems to be in threat in scathe of maintaining its own identity (Sugimoto).A n apparent distinctive cultural element of the Ainu is their talking to all in all, when it comes to examining the Ainu diction, it is categorized as genetically language-isolate (Shibatani, 5). Although studies on the Ainu language have demonstrated discussions as to whicg language it would be considered to have a close proximity, interestingly, its similarities with the Japanese language is minimal.This is an interesting point given that even though Hokkaido is an island north of Japan, the Ainus lingual relationship with the societies that surround it Japan, Korea, Russia have been prove to be still distinguishingly distant.A Background on the AinuIn tracing the Ainu of Japan, this groups roots have not been fully determined mainly because of their distant relationship from the peoples of its geographic proximity. It was set up, however, that based on genetic testings the Ainu had relations with the groups from Tibet and in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.Another th eory was based on tests that showed genetic similarities with those from Mongolia and the Russian Far East. This roll in the hay be attri entirelyed to the geographical history in which the Japanese archipelago was once a part of the Asiatic mainland (Levin & Michael).Culture-wise the indigenous Ainu was in addition different from the Japanese in a sense, evem prior to the establishment of the Japanese regime in the 1870s, frequently of the Ainus interaction were among the indigenous populations from Sakhalin and the Kurile island were found to be more evident (Sugimoto).Given the geographical roots of the Ainu and the location of Hokkaido, the Ainus way of life demonstrated hunting, fishing, and gathering activities, in addition to seasonal lifestyles reflective of surviving the winter months.In terms of its godliness and beliefs, the Ainu is also different from the Japanese hence, culturally, even these cardinal have minuscule or nothing in common. This therefore further su pports the theories that the Ainu language is essentially different from the Japanese.A Discussion on the Ainu LanguageThe Ainu language is not only unshared in the island of Hokkaido where the Ainu people are more known to be found in particular, the Ainu was also distributed in certain parts of Japan much(prenominal) as in Northern Honshu, parts of Sakhalin and Kurile Islands. The language was therefore communicate in these parts of the country but it remained contained among the Ainu communities.The Ainu language is identified to also have its dialects the Ainu-Hokkaido, Ainu-Sikhalin and the Ainu-Kurile. From these dialects were distinctions were also identified, particular through the differences in the phonology lexicon.However, there was also the noted degree of variation in terms of the similarities and differences among these dialects. For instance, check to Shibatani (7), there is a great difference surrounded by the Ainu language in Hokkaido and in Sakhalin and in the syllable structures such as CV and CVC in Hokkaido Ainu whereas in Sakhalin the syllable structures are CVC, CV, CVV (long vowel) (Shibatani, 8).Another important feature in the Ainu language is in its phonology as Shibatani (12-13) mentioned, the language avoids the the use of vowel sequences, hence, the tendency is that the atomic number 16 vowels are usually devocalized.Comparing Ainu Language with the Japanese LanguageGenerally, a comparison between the Ainu language and Japanese is explained by Shibatani as follows (xiv)There is no strong evidence suggesting that a genetic relationship between Ainu and Japanese, and structurally the two differ signifi foundationtly. Ainu, especially classic Ainu, is a polysynthetic language involving collective nouns, incorporated adverbs, affixal forms of reflexive and reciprocal morphemes, as well as personal affixes agreeing with subject and object.Japanes also shows a high degree of deduction in its verbal morphology, but involving neither personal affixes or noun internalization of the Ainu type, it shows a qualitative difference from the Ainu structure. As previously mentioned, the Ainu language is classify as language-isolate this means that the language does not have a attributable association or relation with any other language. Many studies in the past have attempted to identify the closest relative of the Ainu language, but mostly, the Ainu has remained unique.Since that the language was spoken only among the Ainu and that the next generation Ainus were no yearlong educated with the language because of the discrimination they experienced in Japan, the Ainu language can be considered to be threatened to near-extinction.In fact, there are only a certain number of individuals who are noted to speak the language, although given the fact that the Ainu culture was just recently acknowledged by the Japanese fan tan as a distinct indigenous culture, the interest in the culture and in the language have been on the rise for the purpose of resuscitate it (Akulov).