Verb Suffixes -no and -nu in the Saru Dialect of Ainu

Abstract

There are two suffixes with the same phonemic shape -no, both of which are attached to a verb.
The one (-no₁) forms a verb, adding a meaning like “very much”, “perfectly”, “sufficiently ” or “well”.
kunne-no “black-very”
tusa-no “have recovered-completely”
soske-no “can be peeled off-well or easily”
imi-no“dressed-beautifully”
The other (-no₂) forms an adverb:
pirka-no “good-ly (well)”
wen-no “bad-ly”
tuyma-no “distant-ly”
hanke-no “close-ly”
We find a few instances of a prefix no-, which, like -no₁, means “very, completely”.
Kyosuke Kindaichi thought that -no₁ and -no₂ are etymologically the same, and the meaning of -no₁ is their original meaning. Mashiho Chiri presumed that -no₁, -no₂ and the prefix no- all come from the noun nu.The noun nu is put after a noun with the meaning of fruit, fish or animals, and means “a lot (of fruit, fish, animals obtained in gathering, fishing, hunting, etc, )”: cep-nu koan.“He got a lot of fish.”
There are several verbs derived from a noun with a suffix -nu, which mean “to have, get or produce N”:
run-nu (<rur-nu)“sea water, soup-have (salty)”
tures-nu “sister-have (have a sister)”
kem-nu “blood-have (bleed)”
This suffix (-nu₁) must be the same as the noun nu in etymology.
But when -nu occurs after -as, attached to a noun, it means “well” like no₁: tum-as-nu “power-work-well (strong)”-as is originally a verb. Moreover, in northern and south-western dialects -no instead of -nu occurs in the same position. Therefore, the original form of this suffix (-nu₂) should be -no₁.
We cannot tell whether -no₁/no-/-nu₂, -no₂ and nu/-nu₁ have a common etymology or not. Since the phonemic construction of Ainu roots is generally simple and the number of phonemes is relatively small, probability of occurrence of homonymous roots is relatively high, and it is often difficult to jadge whether or not two or more homonymous forms are etymologically identical.