カムィ

Likely related to Old Japanese 神 (kamu, “god”). The exact relationship between the two terms is unclear. Modern Japanese 神 (kami) may have derived from kamu + i (Old Japanese emphatic nominal particle), producing *kamui, and then being borrowed into Ainu as kamuy.

John Batchelor, however, analyses kamuy as being made up of the root ka ("above"), which is then kamu ("to cover") and finally, through the addition of nominalising particle y, kamuy ("he who covers or overshadows"). In this case, Japanese 神 (kami) would be, in fact, a borrowing from Ainu.

• IPA^(key): [kàꜛmúj]

カムィ (Latin spelling kamuy)

1. a god (deity)

   アペ カムィ

   ape kamuy

   the fire god

2. (by extension from the god sense) a bear (large mammal of family Ursidae)

   Synonym: チラマㇺテㇷ゚ (ciramamtep)

カムィ (Latin spelling kamuy)

1. an honorific-like title applied to anything great, important, or terrible, not necessarily implying divinity

   カムィ ノンノ

   kamuy nonno

   a beautiful flower

   カムィ ニㇱパ

   kamuy nispa

   a great lord

• カムィフㇺベ (kamuy-humbe): orca
• カムィチェㇷ゚ (kamuy-cep): salmon
• カムィモシㇼ (kamuy mosir): land of the gods, heaven
• キムンカムィ (kimun kamuy): bear
• ウェンカムィ (wenkamuy): evil spirit, demon

John Batchelor (1905) An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language)‎, Tokyo; London: Methodist Publishing House; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner Co., page 205