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Northern Kuril Islands

計吐夷島

けといとう Ketoy

The last island in Torii's list; his informants' own knowledge of the chain ended at Simushir, the next island south (pp. 40–41).

Ainu spellings: Ketoi

Analyses

Ки той

キトイ

proposed

grassy

  • ki grass (Akulov)
  • toy earth, soil

Proponent: Акулов, А. Ю. (Alexander Akulov)

One of the readings the book lists for a name Torii calls unexplained: Akulov's Ки той 'grassy'; the book also cites Добротворский's dictionary for a white fatty clay called четой or кетой, a kitay 'summit', and the English Wikipedia's 'skeleton' or 'bad'.

Бражник2024 p. 355, quoting Акулов
Analysis details
Confidence: low

kina, not ki, is 'grass' in Hokkaidō Ainu; none of the listed readings rests on a Kuril word, and the 1725 form Китуй is the earliest witness.

Attestations

  • Ketoi oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」
    古より斯く云ふ

    Torii records only that the name is old.

  • Китуй document 1755 Крашенинников, Описание земли Камчатки, ч. I, гл. 9 «О Курильских островах»
    На Китуе ростет камыш, из которого стрелы делают.

    From Müller's list.

    Krasheninnikov1755 pp. 356–357
  • Ketoi document 1897 Snow, Notes on the Kuril Islands
    The next island to the north-east is Ketoi. The channel between is called Diane Strait, and is 8 miles wide.
    Snow1897 p. 66
  • Кетой document 1947 Проект Картографической комиссии РГО им. Ю. М. Шокальского «Названия географических объектов Курильских островов», 1947
    «Старое айнское название».

    The commission restored the name; a proposal to name the island Дианы, after Головнин's sloop, was among those the Geographical Society's presidium rejected in 1947.

    Бражник2024 pp. 355–356
  • Китуй document 1725–1755 Козыревский 1725–1730; Миллер 1737; Крашенинников 1755 (as listed in Бражник–Пономарёв 2024)

    The eighteenth-century Russian record has Китуй шестой на десять (Козыревский 1725–1726), Китуй, десятой (1730), Китуй, Китои шестнадцатый (Миллер 1737); Кетой appears with Иван Черный's diary of 1769.

Sources