Ainu Morpheme Explorer
← Place names

Hidaka town and Biratori, Hidaka region, Hokkaidō

沙流

さる Saru

The river carries two names, one for the plain it crosses and one for its mouth.

Ainu spellings: Sar, Sisirmuka

Analyses

sar

サラ

received reading

reed plain

  • sar reed plain

Proponent: 定説

The author supports the reading and takes the named ground to be the grassland about Tomikawa in Hidaka town. Sarubuto and Saruba are built on the same word.

zenibako_trek2025 「沙流（さる）」田村1996 s.v. sar サㇻ【名】葦原、ヨシ原
Analysis details
Confidence: medium

sar 'reed plain' is a dictionary word in the sense used, the named ground is identified, and two neighbouring names, sar-putu and sar-pa, are built on the same element. No source in the article contests the reading.

si-sir-mukka

シシリムカ

received reading

place where the ground closes over

Proponent: 定説

The other name of the Saru River. The author refers it to the river mouth, which becomes a dune and closes from time to time, as in the Mukawa mukka-p 'place that closes'. He sets beside it Shirifuka, the old name of the Horokappu River in Kyōwa, sir-pukka 'place where the ground swells up'.

zenibako_trek2025 「沙流（さる）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

sir and mukka are dictionary items in the senses used and the closing mouth is a recurring feature of such names; the article gives no dictionary for the initial si.

Sara-moshiri

proposed

The country open to the skies

Proponent: John Batchelor

See Asari.

Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Saru
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