Ainu Morpheme Explorer
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Yoichi, Shiribeshi region, Hokkaidō

百姓沢

ウーセ Use

One of the three tributaries of the Nutchi that Matsuura took down.

Ainu spellings: Uuse

Analyses

use

ウーセ

proposed

commoner

Proponent: 豊丘町の郷土史

The Yoichi Ainu are said to have settled the chief of a people who had come from far away in this valley, and the name is traced to use-kur 'ordinary person', the word for a commoner, which the local history also takes to be behind the Japanese name Hyakushō-zawa 'peasants' valley'.

zenibako_trek2024 ウーセ
Analysis details
Confidence: low

use-kur is the word the local history gives for a commoner. The article states that a place name explained this way is unusual.

ousi

オウシ

proposed

the foot of the mountain

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

Offered as an addition on the shape of the ground; ousi and ouske both name the foot of a mountain.

zenibako_trek2024 ウーセ
Analysis details
Confidence: low

The author adds it as a possibility without argument from the record.

Attestations

  • ウーセ document Edo period 辰手控・竹四郎廻浦日記（松浦武四郎）
    川すじしばし上りてウーセ、右の方小沢、並びてイクービ、同じく右の方またしばし行てクツカルシナイ、右の方 此辺山に成るよし。両岸沢目ひろし。桃花魚多し。

    Matsuura's 『辰手控』 lists three right-bank tributaries of the Nutchi: 「◯ノツ川小名 ウーセ 右 イクービ 右 クツカルシナイ 右」. The 川筋取調図 adds シノマンノツ and ホリカノツ, which the article sets aside as later additions, since most シノマン names on the 山川図 are added later.

Sources