Frontmatter -- Preface -- Introduction to the Handbooks of Japanese Language and Linguistics -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Part I: Overview of Ainu studies -- 1 Ainu: A head-marking language of the Pacific Rim -- 2 Ainu ethnic origins -- 3 Major old documents of Ainu and some problems in the historical study of Ainu -- 4 Ainu language Western records -- 5 The Ainu language through time -- 6 Ainu elements in early Japonic -- 7 Language contact in the north -- 8 Hokkaido Ainu dialects: Towards a classification of Ainu dialects -- 9 Differences between Karafuto and Hokkaido Ainu dialects -- 10 Ainu oral literature -- 11 Meter in Ainu oral literature -- 12 The history and current status of the Ainu language revival movement -- Part II: Typologically interesting characteristics of the Ainu language -- 13 Phonetics and phonology -- 14 Parts of speech - with a focus on the classification of nouns -- 15 Verbal valency -- 16 Noun incorporation in Ainu -- 17 Verbal number -- 18 Aspect and evidentiality -- 19 Existential aspectual forms in the Saru and Chitose dialects of Ainu -- Part III: Appendices: Sample texts -- 20 An uwepeker "Retar Katak, Kunne Katak" and kamuy yukar "Amamecikappo" narrated in the Hokkaido Ainu dialect of Chitose by Ito Oda -- 21 "Meko Oyasi" a Sakhalin Ainu ucaskuma narrated by Haru Fujiyama -- Subject Index