A language isolate of northern Japan and Sakhalin — once spoken by the indigenous Ainu people, now critically endangered with only a handful of native speakers.
Where it’s spoken
Ainu was historically spoken across Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, southern Sakhalin, and the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu. Sustained assimilation pressure from the Meiji period onward — including a ban on Ainu language and customs — reduced fluent speakers to roughly 10 by the early 21st century. Revitalisation programmes are now active in Hokkaido.
What it sounds like
A polysynthetic language with rich incorporation, no grammatical gender, and a verb morphology marking person on both subject and object. Word order is subject-object-verb.
How it’s written
Traditionally unwritten — Ainu culture transmitted epic poems (yukar) orally. Modern documentation uses katakana with extra modifications for sounds Japanese lacks, or the Latin alphabet in academic transcription.
Find more languages by letter
Ainu starts with A and ends with U. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Ainu":