NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Manchu language

The Manchu language is a Tungusic language spoken by Manchus in Manchuria; it is the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus. Although the Sibe (Xibo) language, with 40,000 speakers, is in almost every respect identical to classical Manchu, Sibe speakers, who live in Liaoning and far western Xinjiang, are ethnically distinct from Manchus and lay claim as well to the distinctiveness of their language. Manchu and Chinese writing in the Forbidden City The word â€œManjuâ€ (Manchu) written in Manchu script. ... Image File history File links Manjui_gisun. ... Heilongjiang (Simplified Chinese: é»‘é¾™æ±Ÿçœ; Traditional Chinese: é»‘é¾æ±Ÿçœ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Postal System Pinyin: Heilungkiang) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the â€œInternational Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word Ï†Ï‰Î½Î®, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... The Manchu (manju in Manchu; 滿族 (pinyin: mǎnzú) in Chinese, often shortened to 滿 (pinyin: mǎn) are an ethnic group who originated in northeastern Manchuria. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: æ»¿æ´²; Simplified Chinese: æ»¡æ´²; pinyin: MÇŽnzhÅu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... The Manchu (Manchu: Manju; Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: MÇŽnzÃº, Mongolian: ÐœÐ°Ð½Ð¶) are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria (todays Northeast China). ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... The Xibe ( Sibe; Chinese, éŒ«ä¼¯ XÄ«bÃ³) are an ethnic group living mostly in northeast China and Xinjiang. ... (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: LiÃ¡onÃng) is a northeastern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... For the county in Shanxi province, see Xinjiang County. ...

It is an agglutinative language that demonstrates limited vowel harmony, and it has been demonstrated that it is derived in the main from the Jurchen language though there are many loan words from Mongolian and Chinese. Its script is vertically written and taken from the Mongolian alphabet (which in turn derives from Aramaic via Uyghur and Sogdian). It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ... The Jurchens (Chinese: 女真, pinyin: nǚzhēn) were a Tungusic people who inhabited parts of Manchuria and northern Korea until the seventeenth century, when they became the Manchus. ... The Mongolian language historically has four writing systems that have been used over the centuries. ... Bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) by the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great, 3rd century BC. The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... The Uyghur alphabet is any of the following: A descendant of the Sogdian alphabet, used for texts of Buddhist, Manichæan and Christian contents for 700–800 years in East Turkestan. ... The Sogdian alphabet is derived from Syriac, the descendant script of Aramaic alphabet. ...

Writing system

The Manchu language uses the Manchu script, which was derived from the Mongol script. Manchu is usually romanized according to the system devised by Paul Georg von Möllendorff in his Manchu grammar. Manchu and Chinese writing in the Forbidden City The word â€œManjuâ€ (Manchu) written in Manchu script. ... The Mongolian language historically has four writing systems that have been used over the centuries. ... In linguistics, romanization (or Latinization, also spelled romanisation or Latinisation) is the representation of a word or language with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system. ... MÃ¶llendorff in official Korean dress Paul Georg von MÃ¶llendorff (born 17 February 1847 in Zehdenick, died 20 April 1901 in Ningbo) was a German linguist and diplomat. ...

History and significance

Historically, the Manchu language is important in that some Europeans were exposed to and familiar with Manchu before they encountered the Chinese language. Manchu began as the primary language of the Qing dynasty Imperial court, but by the 19th century even the imperial court had lost fluency in the language. Nevertheless, until the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, all Imperial documents were drafted in both Manchu and Chinese. Today written Manchu can still be seen in architectures inside the Forbidden City whose historical signs are written in both Chinese and Manchu, and Manchu records are important in the study of Qing-era China. This article is about the continent. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... The Qing Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ching chao; Manchu: daicing gurun; Mongolian: ÐœÐ°Ð½Ð¶ Ð§Ð¸Ð½), occasionally known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Qing Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ching chao; Manchu: daicing gurun; Mongolian: ÐœÐ°Ð½Ð¶ Ð§Ð¸Ð½), occasionally known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912. ... This article is about the Chinese imperial palace in Beijing. ...

Very few native Manchu speakers remain; in what used to be Manchuria virtually no one speaks the language with the entire area having been completely sinicized. In fact, the modern custodians of the language are actually the Sibe who live near the Ili valley in Xinjiang and were moved there by Qianlong Emperor in 1764. Modern Sibe is very close to Manchu, although there are a few slight differences in writing and pronunciation; however, the Sibe consider themselves to be separate from the Manchus. Manchu-Chinese in the Forbidden City, by Andrew Lih File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Manchu-Chinese in the Forbidden City, by Andrew Lih File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: æ»¿æ´²; Simplified Chinese: æ»¡æ´²; pinyin: MÇŽnzhÅu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... Sinicization, or Sinification, is to make things Chinese. ... The Ili River is a river in Kazakhstan and in the western part of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China. ... For the county in Shanxi province, see Xinjiang County. ... The Qianlong Emperor (September 25, 1711–February 7, 1799) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Various governments around China have taken to teaching Manchu in more recent times.

Grammar

As mentioned above Manchu is an agglutinative language, and its basic sentence structure is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear (usually) in that order. ...

Manchu Nouns

Nouns in Manchu have a number of cases which are determined by suffixes. In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... Suffix has meanings in linguistics and nomenclature. ...

Less used cases: The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... A zero, in linguistics, is a constituent needed in an analysis but not realized in speech. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Possessive case. ... This article is about a lingustic term. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... In linguistics, ablative case (also called the sixth case) (abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common thread is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ...

In addition, there were some suffixes, such as the primarily adjective-forming suffix -ngga/-ngge/-nggo, that appear to have originally been case markers (in the case of -ngga, a genitive case marker), but which had already lost their productivity and become fossilized in certain lexemes by the time of the earliest written records of the Manchu language: e.g. agangga "pertaining to rain" as in agangga sara (an umbrella), derived from Manchu aga (rain). This case in Hungarian language can express the manner when something happens to each member of a set one by one (eg. ... In Hungarian language this case combines the Essive case and the Formal case, and it can express the position, task, state (eg. ... This declension (case) indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of becoming X or change to X. In the Finnish language, this is the counterpart of the Essive case, with the basic meaning of a change of state. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Possessive case. ...

Phonology

Written Manchu was close to being called an “open syllable” language since the only consonant that came regularly at the end of native words was “n", which is similar to the situation in the Japanese language. This resulted in almost all native words ending in a vowel. In some words, there were vowels that were separated by consonant clusters, as in the words ilha “flower” and abka “heaven”; however, in most words, the vowels were separated from one another by only single consonants. This open syllable structure might not have been found in all varieties of spoken Manchu, but it was certainly found in the southern dialect that was the standard dialect and became the basis for the written language. It is also apparent that the open-syllable tendency of the Manchu language had been growing ever stronger for the several hundred years since written records of Manchu were first produced: consonant clusters that had appeared in older forms, such as abka (rain; heaven) and abtara-mbi (to yell, to scream; to cause a commotion, to make a commotion, to cause a row), were gradually simplified, and the words began to be written as aga or aha (in this form meaning only "rain") and atara-mbi (now meaning only "to cause a commotion"). Japanese ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people, mainly in Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. ...

Manchu consonants

Manchu has twenty consonants, shown in the table using the usual transcription conventions (and the IPA values of the consonants where they differ). The consonant [p] was rare and found mostly in loanwords and in onomatopoeia, such as pak pik "pow pow". Historically, many p's appear to have occurred in ancient forms of the language; however, they had been changed over time to f. The phoneme [ŋ] was also found mostly in Chinese loanwords and onomatopoeia and there was no Manchu letter to represent it; it was written as a digraph nk using the Manchu letters for n and k. The palatal nasal consonant, [ɲ], is usually transcribed with a digraph, "ni," and has thus often been considered as a phonemic sequence of [n] followed by [j], but, in reality, it was pronounced as a single segment, like Spanish "ñ" ([ɲ]). Work in Altaic historical linguistics suggests that the Manchu palatal nasal consonant has a very long history and should not be considered as a mere combination of [n] and [i] or [n] and [j], despite the Manchus' own writing system. Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ... Look up onomatopoeia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics (and phonetics), segment is used primarily â€œto refer to any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speechâ€ (after A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics, David Crystal, 2003, pp. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ...

Also, it should be noted that early Western descriptions of Manchu phonology, particularly those made by speakers of languages, such as French, in which the primary contrast between "b" and "p", "d" and "t", or "g" and "k" is truly one of presence vs. lack of voicing rather than lack of aspiration vs. presence of aspiration (or perhaps lenis vs. fortis), labelled Manchu b as "soft p," Manchu d as "soft t," and Manchu g as "soft k," while Manchu p was "hard p," t was "hard t," and k was "hard k," which suggests that the phonological contrast between the so-called voiced series (b, d, g, j) and the voiceless series (p, t, k, c) in Manchu as it was spoken during the early modern era was actually one of aspiration and/or tenseness, as in the Mandarin language. The term voicing may refer to: In phonetics, a type of phonation. ... See: Aspiration (phonetics) Aspiration (medicine) Aspiration (long-term hope) - see for example, Robert Goddards response to the ridicule by the New York Times, 1920: Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace. ... Fortis (from Latin fortis strong) and lenis (from Latin lenis weak) are linguistics terms. ... Fortis may refer to document management software produced by Westbrook Technologies, Inc. ... Tenseness is a term used in phonology to describe a particular vowel quality that is phonemically contrastive in many languages, including English. ... This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ...

The [s] of the Manchu language is peculiar in that many speakers habitually affricated it, pronouncing it like [ʦ] in some or all contexts.

There is scholarly controversy over whether the velar consonants actually existed in two allophonic forms, a forward palatal set and a rearward uvular set, or whether this was merely a carryover in spelling from earlier alphabets. In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ...

Manchu vowels

In this vowel system, the "neutral" vowels ([i] and [u]) were free to occur in a word with any other vowel or vowels. The lone front vowel ([e], but generally pronounced like Mandarin e or Korean eo/ŏ) never occurred in a word with either of the regular back vowels ([o] and [a]). The vowel [ū] (pronounced as [ʊ] or somewhat like the Korean vowel eu/ŭ) was usually found as a back vowel; however, in some cases, it was found occurring along with the front vowel [e]. Much disputation exists over the exact pronunciation of [ū]. One scholar proposes that it was pronounced as a front rounded vowel initially, but a back unrounded vowel medially. The modern Sibe pronounce it identically to [u]. Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ...

In addition, there were special symbols used to represent the vowels of Chinese loanwords. These sounds are believed to have been pronounced as such, as they never occurred in native words.

Vowel harmony

The vowel harmony that was found in the Manchu language was traditionally described in terms of the philosophy of the I Ching. Syllables with front vowels were described as being as "yin" syllables whereas syllables with back vowels were called "yang" syllables. The reasoning behind this was that the language had a kind of sound symbolism where front vowels represented feminine objects or ideas while the back vowels represented masculine objects or ideas. As a result, there were a number of word pairs in the language in which changing the vowels also changed the gender of the word. For example, the difference between the words hehe (woman) and haha (man) or eme (mother) and ama (father) was essentially a contrast between the front vowel, [e], of the feminine and the back vowel, [a], of the masculine counterpart. Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk) The I Ching (Traditional Chinese: 易經, pinyin y jīng; Cantonese IPA: jɪk6gɪŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping: jik6ging1; alternative romanizations include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Taijitu. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Taijitu. ...

References

External links

Categories: Articles with dead external links | Endangered languages | Languages of China | Tungusic languages | Manchuria Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language. ... Omniglot. ... A dead link or broken link is a link on the world wide web that points to a webpage or server that is permanently unavailable. ... The logo of Internet Archive Internet Archive headquarters The Internet Archive (IA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining an on-line library and archive of Web and multimedia resources. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ... The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China with an estimated 140 million native speakers and tens of millions of second-language speakers. ... The Mongolic languages are a group of thirteen languages spoken in Central Asia. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... The Buyeo (PuyÅ) languages are a hypothetical language family that would relate the languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Baekje and the Japonic languages, and possibly place them together as a family under the hypothetical Altaic family. ... The Japonic languages or Japanese-Ryukyuan languages constitute a language family that is agreed to have descended from a common ancestral language known as Proto-Japonic or Proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... The Evens (formerly known as the Lamuts) (ÐÐ²ÐµÐ½Ñ‹ in Russian) are a people in Siberia. ... The Evenk language (Evenki language) (SIL: EVN, ISO 639-2: tut) is the largest of the northern group of the Manchu-Tungus languages, a group which also includes the Even and Negidal languages. ... The Negidal language is a language of the Tungusic family spoken in the Russian Far East. ... The Oroqen people (é„‚ä¼¦æ˜¥æ—) (also spelled Oroqin and sometimes Orochen and Orochon) are an ethnic group in northern China. ... The Solon language is a language of the Tungusic family; it may also be considered a dialect of the related Evenk language. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... The Nanai language, is a language spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia. ... The Udege language (also Udihe language, Udekhe language) is a language of the Tungusic family. ... The Ulch language, or Olcha, is a language spoken by the Ulch people in Siberia. ... The Jurchens (Chinese: 女真, pinyin: nǚzhēn) were a Tungus people who inhabited parts of Manchuria and northern Korea until the seventeenth century, when they became the Manchus. ... The Xibe language (also Sibo language, Xibo language) is a language of the Tungusic family spoken by members of the Xibe ethnic group in Xinjiang. ...

Contents

Writing system GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");