Ainu Morpheme Explorer
← Place names

Northern Kuril Islands

温禰古丹島

おんねこたんとう Onekotan

In chief ヤコーフ's division of the chain (p. 36) Onekotan belongs with Kharimkotan and Shiashkotan to the group he called Shinrudàt.

Ainu spellings: Onekotan, Onne kotan, Nusa moshiri

Analyses

Onne kotan

オンネコタン

received reading

the island grown old

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

Torii's reading. His word list gives Poro for 'big' and says Onne is a Hokkaidō Ainu word no longer used by the Kuril Ainu, who had used it formerly.

Evidence

  • documents

    Golovnin's Kuril word list of 1811 gives kotan (котанъ) for 'island' in the northern Kuril speech and musir (мусиръ), the modern mosir, in the southern.

  • documents

    The 1947 commission's gloss «старое поселение» and the 1985 handbook's «старое поселение» или «старая деревня» read the name the same way; Akulov 2022 keeps the parts but takes onne as 'big' (Бражник–Пономарёв 2024, p. 327).

鳥居1903 p. 43鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Kotan鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), PoroGolovnin1816 Kuril word list recorded in 1811, item 26 'островъ', cited from a transcription; the page in the 1816 printing is unverified
Analysis details
Confidence: high

Both parts are ordinary words and the Japanese and Russian forms preserve them without change; Torii's own note that onne had gone out of Kuril use fits an old name.

Nusa moshiri

ヌサモシリ

proposed

the island where inau were set up

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

The old name as Torii's informants gave it.

鳥居1903 p. 43田村1996 nusa ヌサ【名】祭壇(家の外の東側にある)鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Moshiri
Analysis details
Confidence: medium

nusa 'altar' is a common word (Tamura 1996); no other source in this database records the name.

Attestations

  • Onekotan oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」
    Onne kotan にして即ち「歲古りたる島」と云ふ意、古は Nusa moshiri 即ち「木幣を樹てたる島」と云へり…

    Torii reads the name as Onne kotan 'the island grown old' and gives the older name Nusa moshiri 'the island where inau were set up'.

  • Оннекутан document 1755 Крашенинников, Описание земли Камчатки, ч. I, гл. 9 «О Курильских островах»
    Четвертой Курильской остров называется Оннекутан.

    Also Оннекута (p. 166); Müller's list has 'Муша и Онникутан' (p. 169).

    Krasheninnikov1755 1949 ed., p. 168
  • Onekotan document 1897 Snow, Notes on the Kuril Islands
    Onekotan has a length of 27 miles.
    Snow1897 p. 74
  • Онекотан document 1947 Проект Картографической комиссии РГО им. Ю. М. Шокальского «Названия географических объектов Курильских островов», 1947
    «Старое айнское название, означает в переводе «старое поселение»».

    The commission restored the name with this gloss; the 1985 handbook repeats it.

  • Стадухина document 1951 Протокол № 12 заседания Курильского райкома ВКП(б), 24 декабря 1951 г.
    Стадухина (бывший Онекотан)

    A district committee's proposal to rename the island after the Cossack Стадухин; the name did not change.

Sources