3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Question about naming a writing system
Thanks so much for the response. Do you know if there's an Ainu word that would mean writing more definitively or a word that means script?
Comment by knikknok at 01/10/2024 at 19:07 UTC*
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Keep in mind that whatever indigenous writing traditions the Ainu had, if any, they were certainly not preserved by the Japanese that had their own writing systems, and little interest in anything but assimilation (and perhaps sometimes worse).
I've never come across a word in Ainu that translates to written word or 'glyph' or 'character'.
The word 'kambi' (or 'kampi') roughly means 'book', and that originates in Japanese. So 'kambisos' is like a collection of papers or a book and 'kambi-nuye' is to write.
'itak' is usually used to indicate speech, especially when you're referring to the speech act itself. It can also indicate the words of your speech. 'itak-ambe' (speech-thing) means 'word'.
To make a noun from a verb you can append a '-p', so 'kambi-nuye-p' is 'a writing thing' or a thing for writing like a pen.
Maybe you want to coin a word based on the idea of shape or image or pattern or something like that?
'noka' ノカ means image or shape or likeness. I've seen it in reference to things like 'graven images' (potoki-noka - lit. idol-shape, 'Kamui noka' - 'god-shape', i.e., likeness of god), There's also the word 'morew-noka' meaning a swirly shape.
I could imagine the word 'itak-noka' イタㇰノカ (or itaki-noka'? message-image イタキノカ) might imply something like 'written word' or the image of a word, and by extension a writing system?
Does that make sense? Anyway, that's just an idea.