Kuril Ainu Zoonyms and Phytonyms in Pallas’s Zoographia and Flora Rossica

Abstract

Close inspection of the Kuril Ainu vocabularies included in two of P.S. Pallas’s less-known publications reveal the existence of expressions which are apparently documented nowhere else. By attempting to identify their provenance, at least one new source comes into light, the general impression being, as one would rather expect, that there must be a multitude of them hidden in the travelogues and personal diaries of Russian explorers from the 18th century.