Aino/Ainu/Ainy and Utari: On the Naming of Indigenous Peoples of the Far Eastern Pacific Islands

Abstract

The different variants of the Ainu self-name or ethnonym that appeared in Russian academic and popular education literature raise the question of its correct use. In earlier scholarly works and travel accounts, one could come across numerous forms of its spelling such as aino, ainu, ainos, and so on. Nowadays, after the trend set by the written sources, some of those forms have entered the oral communication language. What we observe as a result is the introduction of outdated transliterated terms into the contemporary discourse, notwithstanding the fact that these terms do not even conform to the norms of the Russian language. The uncritical and arbitrary use of ethnic designations leads to confusion. This article is an attempt to examine this issue, tracing the history and ways of emergence of Ainu ethnonym’s various versions in ethnographic and historical literature, the use of those by travelers and scholars of different periods, and the question of their linguistic and phonetic makeup in terms of the Russian language rules. Attention is paid to the term utari which sometimes was used as the Ainu self-designation during the 20th century.