Ainu Morpheme Explorer
← Place names

Northern Kuril Islands

占守島

しゅむしゅとう Shumshu

The Kuril Ainu name is recorded by Torii as Shumushu, also Shumuch. Torii's informants placed the northern limit of their own knowledge of the chain at this island (pp. 40–41).

Ainu spellings: Shumushu, Shumuch, Kushan kotan, Shimoshiri

Analyses

Kushan kotan

クシャンコタン

proposed

the place where people first came out

Proponent: 鳥居龍藏 (Torii Ryūzō)

Torii's gloss of the old name; he gives no segmentation. The form is the informants' and stands as recorded.

鳥居1903 p. 41鳥居1903 第六章 千島地名普通單語集 (pp. 156–172), Kotan
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Torii records the gloss without a segmentation; kushan is not identified with any dictionary word here, and only the kotan half can be checked.

Shi-moshiri

シモシリ

proposed

the great country

Proponent: Batchelor, John (John Batchelor)

Batchelor's reading of the head Shimushu / Shimushir / Shumushu.

Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Shimushu
Analysis details
Confidence: low

Batchelor's head conflates two islands, and si-mosir fits Shimushir (新知島) far better than Shumushu; Torii's informants said Shumushu, with no si.

sum-usi

スムシ

proposed

low place

  • sum low (Akulov)
  • usi place

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

Akulov reads Сумус, Сюм-уси, Сюмусю and Шумшу as one chain from sum and us(i); the book also reports Batchelor's Шимошири 'large island' (through Браславец 1983) and an older Russian gloss 'oily place' (Рыжков).

Бражник2024 p. 310, quoting Акулов 2022, с. 123
Analysis details
Confidence: low

sum 'low' is not a Kuril word the record can check, and the earliest Russian forms (Шомучю, Шумчу) do not show the -us-i ending the reading needs.

Attestations

  • Shumushu oral record 1903 鳥居龍藏『千島アイヌ』第二章「千島地名解」
    又一名 Shumuch と云ふ、古は Kushan kotan と稱したり、即ち「人の始めて出たる所」の義なり

    Torii gives Shumuch as a second form and Kushan kotan as the old name, 'the place where people first came out'.

  • Shimushu / Shimushir / Shumushu dictionary 1905 An Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary, 2nd ed.
    Shimoshiri. The great country.

    Batchelor lists Shimushu, Shimushir and Shumushu together under one head, which folds Shumshu into Simushir (新知島), a different island; in chief ヤコーフ's division reported by Torii the two are separate islands (p. 36).

    Batchelor1905 § V "Place Names Considered", s.v. Shimushu
  • Шоумшчу document 1755 Крашенинников, Описание земли Камчатки, ч. I, гл. 9 «О Курильских островах»
    Первой и ближайшей к Курильской лопатке остров называется Шоумшчу; в длину от северо-восточной к южно-западной стороне простирается верст на 50, а в ширину верст на 30.

    The first island from Cape Lopatka in Krasheninnikov's count.

    Krasheninnikov1755 1949 ed., p. 165
  • Shumshir document 1897 Snow, Notes on the Kuril Islands
    Shumshir, the last of the Kuril chain of islands, is 89 square miles in extent.

    Snow writes Shumshir and, on p. 79, 'Shumshir or Pervi Island', Pervi being the Russian 'first'.

    Snow1897 p. 80
  • Шумшу document 1947 Проект Картографической комиссии РГО им. Ю. М. Шокальского «Названия географических объектов Курильских островов», 1947
    В окончательном варианте оставлено название Шумшу.

    The commission had proposed остров Атласова, a name from the Pacific Fleet's hydrographic department, reading the Ainu name as Шимошири 'large island', finding it distorted in Russian usage and unable to restore it because another island bears the same name; in the final version Шумшу stood.

  • Шомучю / Шумчю / Шумчу document 1725–1737 Козыревский 1725, 1726, 1730; Миллер 1737 (as listed in Бражник–Пономарёв 2024)

    The book's list of variants opens the Russian record with Козыревский's Шомучю первой (1725), Шумчю (1726), Шумчу, перьвой (1730) and Миллер's Шумчу, Шумчай (1737); Головнин 1811 has Шумшу first in the local Kuril count and second in the true count.

Sources