Manchu language

The Manchu language is a member of the Tungusic languages; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 100 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus. However, there are about 40,000 speakers of Sibe (Xibo), which is in almost every respect identical to classical Manchu. However, Sibe speakers, who live in far western Xinjiang, are ethnically distinct from Manchus and lay claim as well to the distinctiveness of their language.

Related Topics:
Tungusic languages - Manchu - Mandarin Chinese - Sibe - Xinjiang

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It is an agglutinizing 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).

Related Topics:
Agglutinizing language - Jurchen - Mongolian alphabet - Aramaic - Uyghur - Sogdian

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