| Tungusic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Mongolia, Siberia, Manchuria |
| Linguistic Classification: | Altaic[1] (controversial) Tungusic |
| Subdivisions: |
Northern Tungusic group
Southern Tungusic group
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| ISO 639-5: | tuw |
The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus, Tungus) are spoken by Tungusic people in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain. Traditionally, linguists considered Tungusic to be part of the Altaic language family along with the Turkic and Mongolic language families; more recent proposals are a Macro-Altaic also including Japanese and Korean, or on the other hand, that Altaic is not a genetic group but a Sprachbund.
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Linguists working on Tungusic have proposed a number of different classifications based on different criteria, including morphological, lexical, and phonological characteristics. One classification which seems favoured over other alternatives is that the Tungusic languages can be divided into a northern branch and a southern branch, with the southern branch further subdivided into southeastern and southwestern groups.
Northern Tungusic
The following languages can be considered dialects or related languages of Evenki
Southern Tungusic
Jurchen-Manchu (Jurchen and Manchu are simply different stages of the same language; in fact, the ethnonym "Manchu" did not come about until 1636 when Emperor Hong Taiji decreed that the term would replace "Jurchen") is the only Tungusic language with a literary form (in Jurchen script and later the Manchu alphabet) which dates back to at least the mid- to late-1100s; as such it is a very important language for the reconstruction of Proto-Tungusic.
The earliest and one of the most important extant texts in Jurchen is the inscription on the back of "the Jin Victory Memorial Stele" (Da Jin deshengtuo songbei), which was erected in 1185, during the Dading period (1161-1189). It is apparently an abbreviated translation of the Chinese text on the front of the stele.[2]
The Tungusic languages are of an agglutinative morphological type, and some of them have complex case systems and elaborate patterns of tense and aspect marking. They also exhibit a complex pattern of vowel harmony, based on the parameters of vowel roundedness and vowel tenseness. Another common feature is vocabulary, such as Manchu emu, zhuwe, ilan, meaning 1,2,3.
Tungusic has traditionally been linked with Turkic and Mongolic languages in the Altaic language family. Others have suggested that the Tungusic languages might be related (perhaps as a paraphyletic outgroup) to the Korean, Japonic, or Ainu languages as well.
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