Ainu Morpheme Explorer
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Monbetsu, Hidaka town, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō

門別

もんべつ Monbetsu

One of the most frequent river names in Hokkaidō, usually written with an n in the records that the reading itself does not carry.

Ainu spellings: Mo-pet

Analyses

mo-pet

モベツ

received reading

quiet river

Proponent: 定説

Names of this shape are numerous in Hokkaidō, more than ten of them still in use: Monbetsu in Saru county and in Shin-Hidaka and Samani, Monbetsu city, Monbetsu in Chitose, Date, Oshamanbe and Hiroo, Mobetsu in Monbetsu city and in Mukawa, and Mobetsu in Hokuto, known as Hokuto-Mohechi. The author notes that a great many of them are recorded with an n and asks whether the closing of the lips before p made it easy to hear one there, adding that the Ainu n is weak and appears and disappears.

zenibako_trek2025 「門別（もんべつ）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Both parts are dictionary words in the senses used and the reading is repeated across many places. The article reports the reading and gives no test of it against this river.

Mo-pet

proposed

Slow river

Proponent: John Batchelor

The entry does not say which Mombetsu it describes.

Variants

  • Mopet kotan ‘village by the quiet river’ — Given in the grammar, chapter V, Names of Places.
Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Mombetsu
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Batchelor's reading and gloss as printed in 1905; the segmentation is his, and several of its elements answer to no dictionary headword.

Sources