ヤリキレナイ川 やりきれないがわ Yarikirenai
Yuni, Sorachi region, Hokkaidō
Ainu spellings: I-arkire-nay, Iyarukinai
The modern spelling coincides with the Japanese phrase yarikirenai, and a local story has it that the river flooded with every rain until the residents could bear it no longer. The recorded forms are Iyarukinai on Matsuura's map, Yarikenai on the Meiji survey sheets, and Irubetsu on Mamiya's river map.
Location
43.0115, 141.7785 · Coordinates: OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026-09-10, on ヤリキレナイ川. Open in OpenStreetMap
Referents
- river A small river through the built-up area of Yuni. It formerly joined the Yuni River in the present Hokuei district and entered the Yūbari River.
Analyses
yanke-nay
ヤンケナイ ‘the river where no fish live’ received readingProponent: 由仁町
The town's account: 'until the Meiji period the Yankenai River rose in the Furuyama district, where a cold saline spring flowed into it, so fish could not live there.' The same page records that salmon and trout ran up the river in Meiji and Taishō, that dace and river shrimp are still plentiful, and that salmon fry have been released.
Objections
- yanke-nay is 'the river that lands something'; yanke is a two-place verb and the name is one noun short. yan-nay 'the river of landing' would be grammatical, since yan is one-place, and yake-ri-nay 'the river with a high bank' would make sense as well. Neither shape occurs in the old records, and how either would come to mean 'where no fish live' is unexplained. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
yanke and nay are dictionary words, but the reading leaves a valency slot empty and the published gloss does not follow from the parts.
i-arke-nay
イアㇽケナイ ‘the river that is one of a pair’ received readingProponent: 由仁町
The town's account reads the name as i 'of it', arke 'the half part', nay 'river', a twin of the Yuni River that runs nearby: 'the old Yarikirenai River joined the Yuni River in the present Hokuei district and entered the Yūbari River, so the Ainu seem to have thought of them as twin rivers.' With a glide inserted, i-arke becomes iyarke, close to the イヤルキナイ of Matsuura's map.
Objections
- i-arke-ne-nay 'the river that is one half of it' or nay-arke 'the half of the river' would sit more naturally, though i-arke-nay cannot be ruled out. Writing the name as イヤル・キナイ, with the break in that place, is wrong. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
- arke is a locative noun that follows its noun. nay-arke 'the half of the river' is the natural order; to reverse it, the possessed form arkehe 'its half' has to be used. — zenibako_trek zenibako_trek…
arke is a dictionary word and the sound is close to the oldest recorded spelling. The word order objection applies and the author leaves the reading as not ruled out.
i-arkire-nay
イヤㇽキレナイ ‘the river that brings them, the bears’ proposedProponent: zenibako_trek（小樽銭函地名歴史研究会） (zenibako_trek (Otaru Zenibako Place-Name and History Society))
arki is the plural of 'come'. With re it becomes the causative two-place verb arkire 'to make them come', which needs two nouns, so i 'them' stands in front. i-arkire-nay yields Iyarukirenai or Iyarikirenai, and a compressed iya is heard as ya, which gives Yarikirenai. Ainu place names sometimes use i 'them' for what is feared or not to be named aloud. What comes is known only to be plural: people, bears, snakes, or a flood.
Evidence
- morphological pattern
The Saru dialect dictionary notes of arki 'come (of two or more)': 'though written arki in katakana, it sounds at times close to aruki and at times close to ariki. It is not usually pronounced close to araki; it becomes something like ā-rā-kī only when drawn out for singing. The small ra, ri, ru, re, ro of katakana do not represent the pronunciation, so care is needed.' The recorded shapes of the name fall inside that range.
- arki ‘come (plural)’
- parallel place names
Arekinai in Shibecha, beyond Lake Tōro, has an Arekinai River. Read as arki-nay 'the river where they come', it takes the same verb without the causative.
- documents
Mamiya's river map calls this stream Irubetsu. Ironai in Otaru is read i-ru-un-nay 'the stream where the tracks of it are', the tracks being the bear's, which puts bears first among the plural referents. Here the arrival itself is recorded, and in the plural.
- morphological pattern
Iyomante, i-omante 'to send it off', uses the same i for the bear. arkire, the causative of 'come' in the plural, is its opposite: the river brings them in where the ceremony sends one away.
- omante ‘send off’
- topography
Bear traces and sightings are still reported in the Maoi hills of Yuni.
arki, arkire, i- and nay are all dictionary words, the segmentation is grammatical, and it accounts for the Iyarukinai of Matsuura's map and the modern shape alike. The identification of the plural referent as bears rests on the Irubetsu spelling and the Ironai parallel, and the author presents it as an inference.
Attestations
- イヤルキナイ map Edo period 松浦山川図
Matsuura Takeshirō's map. The author calls this the first recording of the name and treats it as the decisive hint for the reading.
zenibako_trek… - ヤリケナイ map Meiji period 実測切図zenibako_trek…
- イルベツ map Edo period 間宮河川図
Mamiya Rinzō's river map gives a different name for this stream. The author connects the i-ru of it with Ironai in Otaru, i-ru-un-nay 'the stream where the tracks of it are', where 'it' is taken to be the bear.
zenibako_trek… - ヤンケ・ナイ／イヤル・キナイ document present ヤリキレナイ川 河川標識
アイヌ語河川名：ヤンケ・ナイ又はイヤル・キナイ／意味：魚の住まない川又は片割れの川
The river sign carries both received readings.
zenibako_trek…
Related names
- 由仁川 ゆにがわ — The river the town's twin-river reading pairs with this one. The two met in the present Hokuei district before entering the Yūbari River. zenibako_trek…
- 色内（小樽市） いろない — i-ru-un-nay 'the stream where the tracks of it are', the tracks taken to be the bear's. zenibako_trek…