Oroqen language
Oroqen | |
---|---|
Native to | China |
Region | Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang |
Native speakers | 1,200 (2009)[1] |
Tungusic
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | orh |
Glottolog | oroq1238 |
ELP | Oroqen |
Oroqen (/ˈɒrətʃɛn, ˈɒroʊ-/; also known as Orochon, Oronchon, Olunchun, Elunchun or Ulunchun) is a Northern Tungusic language spoken in the People's Republic of China. Dialects are Gankui and Heilongjiang. Gankui is the standard dialect.[2] It is spoken by the Oroqen people of Inner Mongolia (predominantly the Oroqin Autonomous Banner) and Heilongjiang in Northeast China.
Since the 1980s, Oroqen-language materials were produced by teachers in Oroqen-speaking areas. They based the language's orthography either on IPA or Pinyin. A majority of Oroqen speakers use Chinese as a literary language and some also speak Daur.
Geographic distribution[]
Oroqen is spoken in the following counties of China (Ethnologue).
- Heilongjiang province
- Da Hinggan Ling: Huma County and Tahe County
- Heihe: Xunke County
- Yichun: Jiayin County and Heihe City
- Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
- Hulunbuir: Oroqen Autonomous Banner
Dialects[]
- Birarchen
- Kumarchen
- Orochen
- Selpechen (in Heilongjiang)
- Gankui (in Inner Mongolia)
The Gankui dialect is used as the standard dialect for the Oroqen language.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
Affricate | voiceless | t͡ʃ | ||||
voiced | d͡ʒ | |||||
Fricative | ɸ | ʃ | x [ɣ] | [h] | ||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
Lateral | l | |||||
Rhotic | r | |||||
Approximant | j | w |
- Allophones of /x/ are heard as [ɣ], [h].
- A bilabial /ɸ/ can also be heard as a labio-dental [f].
- A rhotic trill /r/ tends to sound as a tap [ɾ], when occurring word-finally.
Vowels[]
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
High | i iː | y | u uː | |
Near-high | ɪ ɪː | ʊ ʊː | ||
High-mid | eː | ə əː | o oː | |
Low-mid | ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ||
Low | ɑ ɑː |
- /ə, əː/ are often heard as lower sounds [ɐ, ɐː].
- Short allophones of /o, u/ are heard as [ɵ, ʉ].[3]
Notes[]
External links[]
- Oroqen Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
- Oroqen Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh list appendix)
- Oroqen alphabet from Omniglot
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Oroqen language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
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Oroqen language test of Wiktionary at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Agglutinative languages
- Languages of China
- Tungusic languages
- Endangered languages
- Language stubs