Ainu Morpheme Explorer
← Place names

Northern Kuril Islands

幌筵島

ぱらむしるとう Paramushir

Torii's list of places on this island (pp. 48–53) is the longest in his chapter; his informant ニキハル knew its east, south and north but not the west (p. 40).

Ainu spellings: Paramoshiri, Poro-moshiri, Uréshi, Nuben-moshiri, Sesebumoshiri

Analyses

Poro-moshiri

ポロモシリ

received reading

big island

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

The Kuril Ainu form as Torii heard it; his word list has Poro 'big' and Moshiri 'island'.

鳥居1903 p. 42鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Poro鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Moshiri
Analysis details
Confidence: high

Both parts are ordinary words, recorded by Torii himself, and the island is the largest of the group. The a of Paramushir, 幌筵 and Парамушир against the o of the Ainu form is a separate, open question.

Uréshi

ウレシ

proposed

the place that rears many people

  • uréshi (Torii: 'rear many people')

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

A second name recorded with its gloss; Torii does not segment it.

鳥居1903 p. 42
Analysis details
Confidence: low

No dictionary word is identified for the form here; the gloss rests on the informants alone.

para mosir

パラモシㇼ

proposed

wide island

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

Akulov takes the a of the recorded forms at face value; the 1947 commission glossed the name «широкий остров», the 1985 handbook «большой или обширный остров», and Браславец 1983 allows a Poro-mosir beside it. Akulov notes that recorders often heard Ainu o as u and the reverse.

Бражник2024 p. 313, quoting Акулов 2022, с. 123
Analysis details
Confidence: medium

para 'wide' accounts for the a that poro-mosir leaves open, but Torii's informants said Poro-moshiri 'big island' themselves; both readings keep mosir.

Attestations

  • Paramoshiri oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」
    土人は Poro-moshiri（大島）と云ふ、又 Uréshi（人を多く育てる所）Nuben-moshiri, Sesebumoshiri とも稱せり

    Torii writes the heading form Paramoshiri (波羅牟志利島) and gives the Kuril Ainu form Poro-moshiri 'big island', with three further names Uréshi 'place that rears many people', Nuben-moshiri and Sesebumoshiri.

  • Поромусир document 1755 Крашенинников, Описание земли Камчатки, ч. I, гл. 9 «О Курильских островах»
    Второй Курильской остров называемой Поромусир величиною вдвое больше первого.

    The second island in Krasheninnikov's count, twice the size of the first.

    Krasheninnikov1755 1949 ed., p. 166
  • Paramushir document 1897 Snow, Notes on the Kuril Islands
    Paramushir is one of the largest islands in the Kuril chain.
    Snow1897 p. 76
  • Парамушир document 1947 Проект Картографической комиссии РГО им. Ю. М. Шокальского «Названия географических объектов Курильских островов», 1947
    «Старое айнское название, означающее «широкий остров»».

    The commission restored the name with this gloss.

  • Парамушир второй / Пурумушир / Поромусир document 1725–1755 Козыревский 1725–1730; Миллер 1737; Крашенинников 1755 (as listed in Бражник–Пономарёв 2024)

    The Russian record has Парамушир второй (Козыревский 1725), Пурумушир (1726–1730), Пурумушир, Пурумуша (Миллер 1737), Поромусир (Казанцов 1733, Крашенинников 1755), and Шпанберг's charts Пуремчин (1738).

Sources