Ainu Morpheme Explorer
← Place names

Shadai, Shiraoi, Iburi region, Hokkaidō

社台

しゃだい Shadai

Both readings take the second element as tay 'wood'. They differ in the first element and in where the name belongs: the coastal ground, or the plateau in the upper valley.

Ainu spellings: Sattay, Satay

Analyses

sa-tay-pet

シャタイベツ

received reading

river of the wood in front

Proponent: 定説

Objections

  • sa is a locative noun and cannot stand before another noun without a transitive verb between them; 'the river in front of the wood' would take a shape such as tay-sa-un-pet. The old records write Shadai without pet throughout, and the author holds that appending pet to every name is a habit of the place-name literature. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek2025
zenibako_trek2025 「社台（シャダイ）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

The parts are dictionary words; the sequence sa before a noun is the grammatical point at issue, and pet is absent from the records.

sat-tay

シャタイ

proposed

wood spread wide

Proponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))

sat is ordinarily 'dry'; the author states that a further sense 'looking as if spread out over a surface' is attested, used of such things as a sky full of stars, and reads the name with that sense. The referent is the plateau above the Shadai and Inkura falls, which is almost level and forms a distinctive landform. Local Ainu explained the name as given for the great falls, which the author takes as further support for the upper valley being the named place.

zenibako_trek2025 「社台（シャダイ）」
Analysis details
Confidence: low

tay is a dictionary word in the sense used and the reading matches the recorded spelling without an added pet. The sense of sat the analysis needs is reported by the author without a source given in the article.

Attestations

  • シャダイ document Edo period

    The old records give Shadai throughout, with no example carrying pet.

Sources