Author: CHAMBERLAIN, BASIL HALL / BATCHELOR, JOHN:
Title: The Language, Mythology, and Geographical Nomenclature of Japan Viewed in the Light of Aino Studies. Including An Ainu Grammar by John Batchelor and A Catalogue of Books Relating to Yezo and the Ainos. Tokyo, The Imperial University, Printed at the Japan Mail Office in Yokohama, 1887.små
Description: . 4to. Pp. (iv), 174. Contemporary half calf on cloth boards, rubbed. Old Japanese ownership stamp on title. Some minor staining. First edition of the first substantial work on the Ainu language in English. Rare in the trade.  Chamberlain, born in England, first arrived in Japan in 1883 and was later appointed professor of Japanese at the Tokyo Imperial University. He lived among the Ainu in the mid-1880s and was involved in pioneering research on the Ainu and Ryukyu cultures of Japan. He believed that the Ainu language had no affinity with Japanese, based on his analysis of word structure and numbers. He concluded: "Ainu is a completely different language from Japanese, Korean, and Altaic languages and is an isolated language of the world". Later several linguists have disagreed with Chamberlain, but research has still not arrived at the true origin of the language. (Fitzhugh and Dubreuil).The Reverend John Batchelor came to Hokkaido in 1877 where he lived amongst the Ainu for more than 60 years. His defnitive Ainu grammar was first published in 1903. See: William Fitzhugh and Chisato Dubreuil, "Ainu Spirit of Northern People", Smithsonian Institution, (1999) pp. 62-5. (Included in Memoirs of the Literature College, Imperial University of Japan, no. 1). Cordier BJ 640-1. Wenckstern I: 301-2.

Keywords: East Asia, aino, ainu, japan, japanese, asia, asie, asien, asiatic, language, langue, linguistic, grammar,


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