Hokkaidō

虻田

あぶた Abuta

Batchelor describes a village beside rocks that he compares to spear heads.

Ainu spellings: Ap-uta kotan

Analyses

Ap-uta kotan

proposed

The place of fish-spear-heads

Ap fish-spear head
u plural existence, mutuality (Batchelor)
ta locative particle
kotan village, place

Proponent: John Batchelor

He compares nearby prominent rocks to fish-spear heads and analyses u and ta separately. He also mentions apu “floe, broken sea ice” without developing another derivation.

Attestations

Abuta dictionary 1905 An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, 2nd edition

“The place of fish-spear-heads.”

The entry gives Batchelor’s analytical spelling and interpretation.

Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", p. 33, s.v. Abuta

Sources

An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary (including A Grammar of the Ainu Language)
Batchelor, John·1905