Muroran, Iburi region, Hokkaidō
室蘭
むろらん MuroranThe Ainu name belonged to the base of the Etomo peninsula, around today's Sakimori station, and only later covered the peninsula and the modern city. Every Edo-period record writes Mororan or a u/o variant of it; the four explanations Nagata Hōsei collected at the end of the nineteenth century show the name was already disputed then.
Ainu spellings: Mororan, Moruran, Mururan
Analyses
mo-ru-e-ran-i
モルエラニ
place where a small road goes down
- mo small
- ru road
- e there, at it
- ran go down
- i place
Proponent: 知里真志保 (Chiri Mashiho)
The reading given by the city of Muroran and by the place-name books, usually translated 'small slope'. The author traces it to Chiri Mashiho. It repairs the intransitive ran with the applicative e-, and replaces the final nay of ru-e-ran-nay with the formal noun i. Yamada Hidezō took it up and explained ru-e-ran-i under Rubeshibe in Ainugo Chimei no Kenkyū 2, which is how it reached general circulation.
Objections
- No Edo-period record writes Moruerani; the author puts the first appearance of the spelling in the post-war years. A place name of the shape 'head noun + intransitive verb' is grammatical on its own, as in suma-san, suma-retar, suma-perke, nay-poro and i-sikari, so neither the inserted e- nor the final i is needed. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek2023
mo-ru-ran-nay
モルランナイ
river that goes down a small road
Proponent: 元室蘭村アイヌ（『北海道蝦夷語地名解』所引）
Nagata Hōsei collected four explanations at Muroran and settled on this one, adding that it names a river inside the village and not the slope at Hotoeushi. The author points out that Moruran and Hotoeushi are names of different places, so that objection does not apply.
Objections
- ran is an intransitive verb and can hold one noun, while here it stands between ru 'road' and nay 'river' and holds two. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek2023
mo-rueran-hotuye-usi
モルエランホトゥエウシ
place where one goes down a small slope and calls a boat
- mo small
- rueran go down a slope
- hotuye call out
- usi place
Proponent: 絵鞆アイヌの言い伝え（『北海道蝦夷語地名解』所引）
Nagata's first explanation: before the mountain road was opened, Etomo Ainu crossed by small boat, hunted in the hills, came down the small slope, climbed the rock at Hotoeushi and called for the boat from Etomo. Hotoeushi is the cape east of Moruran, where the Hakuchō Bay lookout now stands; the author suggests hotoye-us-i 'place where one calls out' for it.
moru-ye-ran
モルイェラン
pus comes down from the hair
- moru-ye pus from the hair
- ran come down
Proponent: 幌別アイヌ（『北海道蝦夷語地名解』所引）
Told of an old man who lived at the place before the Etomo Ainu were moved there and whose sores ran from under his hair. Nagata reports the segmentation moru-ye-ran and glosses the whole as 髪膿下る without glossing the parts separately.
Objections
- Nagata calls the explanation abuse and adds that a name ending in ran does not suit a place name. — 永田方正 zenibako_trek2023
moru-ran
モールラン
to come down the slope in an undergarment
- moru close-fitting undergarment
- ran go down
Proponent: 和人某（『北海道蝦夷語地名解』所引）
Told of a woman chased by a bear in the hills who threw off her clothes, came down to Hotoeushi in her undergarment alone and called a boat.
Objections
- Nagata dismisses the explanation as not worth taking up. — 永田方正 zenibako_trek2023
mo-ru-ran
モルラン
a small road goes down
Proponent: 上原熊次郎 (Uehara Kumajirō)
The Ainu interpreter Uehara Kumajirō gives this reading in Tōzai Ezo Chimeikō narabini Ritei-ki (1824), half a century before Matsuura's time: mo 'small', ru 'road', ran 'go down'. The author adopts it and translates it freely as 'small slope'.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
Names of the shape 'head noun + intransitive verb' occur across Hokkaidō: suma-san 'the rock juts out' (Ishiyama and Tegumi), suma-retar 'the rock is white' (Harusuna), suma-perke 'the rock is split' (Ranshima), nay-poro 'the river is big' (Naihoro in Sakhalin), i-sikari 'it goes round' (Ishikari). The author calls the pattern the etu-pirka construction, after etu-pirka 'the beak is beautiful'.
- parallel place names
The name ru-ran 'the road goes down' occurs on its own at Erimo, at Gokibiru and elsewhere.
- documents
Edo-period sources write Mororan, Moruran and Mururan, all of which the reading covers directly; the author holds that a change from Moruerani to Mororan goes well beyond the regular sound changes of Ainu place names.
Objections
- Nagata holds that a name ending in ran does not suit a place name. — 永田方正 zenibako_trek2023
Mo-ru-ran-kotan
The village of the gently descending road
Proponent: John Batchelor
A very good description of the old road over the mountains to old Mororan.
Attestations
- モロラン document Edo period 東西蝦夷山川地理取調図; 伊能図; 今井原図; 間宮河川図; 東蝦夷日誌; 武四郎廻浦日記; 蝦夷巡覧筆記; 北夷談; 東行漫筆; 観国録; 絵図面方角道規地名控; 文化蝦夷図; 蝦夷闔境輿地全図; 改正蝦夷全図; 松前蝦夷地嶋図; 松前絵図; 東韃沿海図
The maps and journals of Matsuura Takeshirō, Inō Tadataka, Mamiya Rinzō, Imai Hakkurō and Mogami Tokunai all write Mororan. No Edo-period source writes Moruerani.
- モルラン document 1727 享保十二年所附
- ムルラン document Edo period 木村蝦夷日記
The author reads the u/o variation as the common confusion of Ainu u with Japanese o, as in Ushoro for Oshoro.
- モルラン document 1824 東西蝦夷地名考並里程記（上原熊次郎）
The interpreter Uehara Kumajirō writes that Mororan is the Ainu moruran, mo 'small', ru 'road', ran 'go down'.
Related names
- 絵鞆 えとも — The peninsula west of Moruran. Mid-Edo sources carry Etomo earlier than Mororan; the name Muroran spread over the peninsula after the camp was built at Moruran. zenibako_trek2023
- ホトエウシ — The cape east of Moruran from which boats from Etomo were called; the author suggests hotoye-us-i 'place where one calls out' for it. The Hakuchō Bay lookout stands there now. zenibako_trek2023
Sources
- 室蘭の由来 ～モロラン？モルエラニ？～
zenibako_trek·2023-09-11
- An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary (including A Grammar of the Ainu Language)
Batchelor, John·1905