Tungusic languages
The Tungusian languages (or Manchu-Tungusian languages) are a group of languages spoken in eastern Siberia and Manchuria.
Internal classification
The Tungusian languages are divided into two groups:
- Northern
- Evenki language (obsolete name: tungus), spoken by the evenks in Central Siberia, Mongolia and China
- Language even (obsolete name: lamut) of East Siberia.
- South
- Manchu language spoken in Manchuria (northeast of China), which is the only Tunisian language with literary form since the seventeenth century and written history. The manchu includes the Sibe or xibe dialect spoken today by the xibe ethnic group in the Uigur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.
- The ancient Yurchen language
- The dialects of the Amur River, which include nanai or goldi, oroch, etc.
- Manchu language spoken in Manchuria (northeast of China), which is the only Tunisian language with literary form since the seventeenth century and written history. The manchu includes the Sibe or xibe dialect spoken today by the xibe ethnic group in the Uigur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang.
Common features
The Tungusic languages phonetically resemble the group of Altaic languages (Turkic and Mongolian families) and present rounded vowels that participate in phonological processes of vowel synharmony. From a grammatical point of view, they are agglutinative languages with a final nucleus.
Lexical comparison
Numerals in different Tungusian languages:
GLOSA North Southeast Tungus Southwest PROTO-
TUNGUSEven Evenki Negidal Oroqen Udihe Orochi Orok Ulcha Hezhen Manchu Xibe '1' men θmun mnn umun omo omo ge umu ømkøn ømkøn ømkøn ♪ '2' drun::r dك dvolvu dك dvolvu dvolvu du Direction d dururu doo duu *d)ub(r) '3' . . Ilan Ilan I know. I know. I know. I know. Ilan il Ilan ♪ '4' digen dijin di dijin di di d dui dujin duin dujin *dügin '5' tunÿan MERCHING toŋσa MERCHING tug tug Tunda tuadёa sundaa sundɑ・ sundaa ♪ you do ♪ '6' uuπen nigga uu paceun uu paceun u paceu u paceu nu u pacegu nigga ny pace nigga ♪ uuεun '7' Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. - No. nadøn ♪ Nadan '8' drunkan drunic dvolvapkun dvolvapkifiesn d drun dvolvu drun dquaqun d doqo dquaqun ♪ d *akpun
♪ d *apkun'9' ujun jøjin ij devoted jøjin jøji xuju xuju xuji ujyn ujyn ujin *xegün '10' m dvolva dvolva dvolva dvolva dvolva dvolvo d d duan duu›n d duan ♪ duuban
Relations with other languages
Tungusic is now considered a primary language family. Especially in the past, some linguists have related Tungusic to the Turkic and Mongolian languages of the Altaic language family. However, the existence of a genetic link, rather than an areal link, has not yet been proven. Others have suggested that the Tungusic languages may be related (perhaps as a paraphyletic outgroup) to the Korean, Japanese, or Ainu languages as well (see Macro-Tungusic).
In 2017, Martine Robbeets re-proposed a link to the Turkic and Mongolian languages in their "trans-Eurasic family" (another name for macroaltaic). According to Robbeets, Tungusic is the closest to the Mongolian languages.[21] The evidence for this proposal has been criticized by Tian. et al.
Despite some similarities between Tungusic and Korean languages, Alexander Vovin (2013)[23] considers Tungusic and Korean to be separate and unrelated language groups that share areal rather than genetic commonalities through the mutual influence of Goguryeo and Jurchen on each other.
Some scholars consider the language of the Avars in Europe that created the Avar Kaganate to be of Tungusic origin.