Tungusic languages

Tungusic
Ethnicity	Tungusic peoples
Geographic distribution	Siberia, Manchuria
Linguistic classification	One of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions	Northern Southern
ISO 639-5	tuw
Glottolog	tung1282
Geographic distribution of the Tungusic languages

The Tungusic languages /tʊŋˈɡʊsɪk/ (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered, and the long-term future of the family is uncertain. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the dozen living languages of the Tungusic language family. Some linguists consider Tungusic to be part of the controversial and widely discredited Altaic language family, along with Turkic, Mongolic, and sometimes Koreanic and Japonic.

Current geographic distribution of languages in the Tungusic family

The term "Tungusic" is from an exonym for the Evenk people (Ewenki) used by the Yakuts ("tongus"). It was borrowed into Russian as "тунгус", and ultimately into English as "Tungus". It became a broad term for speakers of the whole family, "Tungusic". Use of "Tungus" is now discouraged; the Russian government now uses the endonym "Evenks" officially.^{[citation needed]}

Classification[]

Linguists working on Tungusic have proposed a number of different classifications based on different criteria, including morphological, lexical, and phonological characteristics. Some scholars have criticized the tree-based model of Tungusic classification, arguing the long history of contact among the Tungusic languages makes them better treated as a dialect continuum.^[1]

The main classification is into a northern branch and a southern branch (Georg 2004), although the two branches have no clear division and the classification of intermediate groups is debatable.

Four mid-level subgroups are recognized by Hölzl (2018),^[2] namely Ewenic, Udegheic, Nanaic, and Jurchenic.

Alexander Vovin^[3] notes that Manchu and Jurchen are aberrant languages within South Tungusic but nevertheless still belong in it, and that this aberrancy is perhaps due to influences from the Para-Mongolic Khitan language, from Old Korean, and perhaps also from Chukotko-Kamchatkan and unknown languages of uncertain linguistic affiliation.

Southern Tungusic (Jurchenic-Nanaic)

• Jurchenic (Southwestern Tungusic) ("Manchu group")
  • Jurchen (extinct, developed into Manchu in the 17th century)
    • Manchu: speakers originated from the Sungari Ula River area (they founded the Jin and Qing or Manchu dynasties of China)
    • Xibe: spoken in Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County, Sinkiang/Xinjiang. (Developed separately since 1764 from a Qing military garrison)
  • Chinese Kyakala (恰喀拉^[4])
  • Bala (巴拉^[4][5])
  • Alchuka (阿勒楚喀^[4])
• Nanaic (Southeastern Tungusic) ("Nanai group" / "Amur group")
  • Nanai (Gold, Goldi, Hezhen) (Akani, Birar, Samagir)
    • Upper Amur
      • Right-bank Amur
      • Sungari
      • Bikin (Ussuri)
    • Central Amur
      • Sakachi-Alyan
      • Naykhin (basis of standard Nanai but not identical)
      • Dzhuen
    • Lower Amur
      • Bolon
      • Ekon
      • Gorin
  • Orok (Uilta)
    • Northern (East Sakhalin)
    • Southern (South Sakhalin, Poronaysky)
  • Ulch / Olcha

Transitional Southern-Northern Tungus (Udegheic)

• Udegheic (Oroch–Udege; strongly influenced by Southern Tungusic)
  • Oroch
    • Tumninsky dialect
    • Khadinsky dialect
    • Hungarisky dialect
  • Udege / Udihe

Northern Tungusic (Ewenic)

• Ewenic
  • Even (Lamut) (in eastern Siberia)
    • Arman
    • Indigirka
    • Kamchatka
    • Kolyma-Omolon
    • Okhotsk
    • Ola
    • Tompon
    • Upper Kolyma
    • Sakkyryr
    • Lamunkhin
  • Evenki
    • Evenki (obsolete: Tungus), spoken by Evenks in central Siberia and Manchuria
      • Solon (Solon Ewenki)
        • Hihue/Hoy (basis of the standard, but not identical)
        • Haila’er
        • Aoluguya (Olguya)
        • Chenba’erhu (Old Bargu)
        • Morigele (Mergel)
      • Siberian Ewenki / Ewenki of Siberia
        • Northern (spirant)
          • Ilimpeya (subdialects: Ilimpeya, Agata and Bol'shoi, Porog, Tura, Tutonchany, Dudinka/Khantai)
          • Yerbogachen (subdialects: Yerbogachen, Nakanno)
        • Southern (sibilant)
          • Hushing
            • Sym (subdialects: Tokma/Upper Nepa, Upper Lena/Kachug, Angara)
            • Northern Baikal (subdialects: Northern Baikal, Upper Lena)
          • Hissing
            • Stony Tunguska (subdialects: Vanavara, Kuyumba, Poligus, Surinda, Taimura/Chirinda, Uchami, Chemdal'sk)
            • Nepa (subdialects: Nepa, Kirensk)
            • Vitim-Nercha/Baunt-Talocha (subdialects: Baunt, Talocha, Tungukochan, Nercha)
        • Eastern (sibilant-spirant)
          • Vitim-Olyokma (subdialects: Barguzin, Vitim/Kalar, Olyokma, Tungir, Tokko)
          • Upper Aldan (subdialects: Aldan, Upper Amur, Amga, Dzheltulak, Timpton, Tommot, Khingan, Chul'man, Chul'man-Gilyui)
          • Uchur-Zeya (subdialects: Uchur, Zeya)
          • Selemdzha-Bureya-Urmi (subdialects: Selemdzha, Bureya, Urmi)
          • Ayan-Mai (subdialects: Ayan, Aim, Mai, Nel'kan, Totti)
          • Tugur-Chumikan (subdialects: Tugur, Chumikan)
          • Sakhalin (no subdialects)
    • Negidal
      • Lower Negidal (close to Evenki) (extinct)
      • Upper Negidal
    • Oroqen
      • Gankui (basis of standard Oroqen but not identical)
      • Heilongjiang (Heihe)
    • Kili (traditionally considered Nanai) (Kur-Urmi or Hezhen - probably not Nanai or even Southern Tungusic but a northern Tungusic language)

Zimin (2020)[]

Zimin (2020) proposes a Tungus–Manchu family with two primary branches, namely the Jurchenic and Tungusic (proper) branches.^[6]

Tungus–Manchu

• Jurchenic
  • Xi Yeren Jurchen
    • Bala
    • Alchuka
  • Jurchen proper
    • Haixi Jurchen
      • spoken Sibo
      • Guanwai
        • Ilanbou
        • Tailai
        • Aigun
        • Niŋgutan, Girinese
    • Jianzhou Jurchen
      • Hebei, Mukdenese Manchu
      • written Manchu; Sibo
• Tungusic (proper)
  • Nanic
    • Uilta
    • Nanai
      • Nani
      • Lower Amur Nanai
      • Ussuri–Bikin Nanai
      • Middle Amur Nanai
  • Oroch–Ewonic
    • Ewonic
      • Southern
      • Northern
      • Eastern
    • Oroch–Udyhe
      • Oroch
      • Kur–Urmi Udyhe
      • Siȟotə–Aliň Udyhe

History[]

Proto-Tungusic[]

Some linguists estimate the divergence of the Tungusic languages from a common ancestor spoken somewhere in Manchuria around 500 BC to 500 AD. (Janhunen 2012, Pevnov 2012)^[7] Other theories favor a homeland closer to Lake Baikal. (Menges 1968, Khelimskii 1985)^[8] While the general form of the protolanguage is clear from the similarities in the daughter languages, there is no consensus on detailed reconstructions. As of 2012, scholars are still trying to establish a shared vocabulary to do such a reconstruction.^[7]

There are some proposed sound correspondences for Tungusic languages. For example, Norman (1977) supports a Proto-Tungusic *t > Manchu s when followed by *j in the same stem, with any exceptions arising from loanwords.^[9] Some linguists believe there are connections between the vowel harmony of Proto-Tungusic and some of the neighboring non-Tungusic languages. For example, there are proposals for an areal or genetic correspondence between the vowel harmonies of Proto-Korean, Proto-Mongolian, and Proto-Tungusic based on an original RTR harmony.^[10] This is one of several competing proposals, and on the other hand, some reconstruct Proto-Tungusic without RTR harmony.^[10]

Some sources describe the Donghu people of 7th century BC to 2nd century BC Manchuria as Proto-Tungusic.^[11] Other sources sharply criticize this as a random similarity in pronunciation with "Tungus" that has no real basis in fact.^[12]

The historical records of the Korean kingdoms of Baekje and Silla note battles with the Mohe (Chinese: 靺鞨) in Manchuria during the 1st and 2nd centuries. Some scholars suggest these Mohe are closely connected to the later Jurchens, but this is controversial.

Alexander Vovin (2015)^[13] notes that Northern Tungusic languages have Eskimo-Aleut loanwords that are not found in Southern Tungusic, implying that Eskimo-Aleut was once much more widely spoken in eastern Siberia. Vovin (2015) estimates that the Eskimo-Aleut loanwords in Northern Tungusic had been borrowed no more than 2,000 years ago, which was when Tungusic was spreading northwards from its homeland in the middle reaches of the Amur River.

Wang and Robbeets (2020)^[14] place the Proto-Tungusic homeland in the Lake Khanka region.

Liu et al. (2020) ^[15] revealed that Haplogroup C-F5484 and its subclades are the genetic markers of Tungusic-speaking peoples. C-F5484 was emerged 3,300 years ago and begun to diverge 1,900 years ago, indicating the approximate age of differentiation of Tungusic languages.

Jurchen-Manchu language[]

The earliest written attestation of the language family is in the Jurchen language, which was spoken by the rulers of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234).^[16] The Jurchens invented a Jurchen script to write their language based on the Khitan scripts. During this time, several stelae were put up in Manchuria and Korea. One of these, among 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.^[17] The last known example of the Jurchen script was written in 1526.

The Tungusic languages appear in the historical record again after the unification of the Jurchen tribes under Nurhaci (Manchu: ᠨᡠᡵᡤᠠᠴᡳ) who ruled 1616-1626. He commissioned a new Manchu alphabet based on the Mongolian alphabet, and his successors went on to found the Qing dynasty. In 1636, Emperor Hong Taiji decreed that the ethnonym "Manchu" would replace "Jurchen". Modern scholarship usually treats Jurchen and Manchu as different stages of the same language.

Currently, Manchu proper is a dying language spoken by a dozen or so elderly people in Qiqihar, China. However, the closely related Xibe language spoken in Xinjiang, which historically was treated as a divergent dialect of Jurchen-Manchu, maintains the literary tradition of the script, and has around 30,000 speakers. As the only language in the Tungustic family with a long written tradition, Jurchen-Manchu is a very important language for the reconstruction of Proto-Tungusic.

Other Tungusic languages[]

Other Tungusic languages have relatively short or no written traditions. Since around the 20th century, some of these other languages can be written in a Russian-based Cyrillic script, but the languages remain primarily spoken languages only.^{[citation needed]}

Tungusic research[]

The earliest Western accounts of Tungusic languages came from the Dutch traveler Nicolaes Witsen, who published in the Dutch language a book titled Noord en Oost Tartarye (literally 'North and East Tartary'), which described a variety of peoples in the Russian Far East and included some brief word lists for many languages. Following his travel to Russia, his collected findings were published in three editions, 1692, 1705, and 1785.^[18] The book includes some words and sentences from the Evenki language, then called "Tungus".

The German linguist Wilhelm Grube (1855–1908) published an early dictionary of the Nanai language (Gold language) in 1900, as well as deciphering the Jurchen language for modern audiences using a Chinese source.

Common characteristics[]

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.

The normal word order for all of the languages is subject–object–verb.^[19]

Phonology[]

Tungusic languages exhibit a complex pattern of vowel harmony, based on two parameters: vowel roundedness and vowel tenseness (in Evenki, the contrast is back and front, rather). Tense and lax vowels do not occur in the same word; all vowels in a word, including suffixes, are either one or the other. Rounded vowels in the root of a word cause all the following vowels in the word to become rounded, but not those before the rounded vowel. Those rules are not absolute, and there are many individual exceptions.^[19]

Vowel length is phonemic, with many words distinguished based on the distinction between short vowel and long vowel.^[19]

Tungusic words have simple word codas, and usually have simple word onsets, with consonant clusters forbidden at the end of words and rare at the beginning.^[19]

Below are Proto-Tungusic phonemes from Whaley and Oskolskaya (2020),^[20]:83–87 based on Benzing (1955):^[21]

Consonants

	labial	dental	palatal	velar
voiceless stop	p	t		k
voiced stop	b	d		g
voiceless africate			č
voiced affricate			ǯ
voiceless fricative		s		x
nasal	m	n	ń	ŋ
liquid		l, r
glide	w		j

Vowels

	front	central	back
high	i, ü		u
mid	e	ö	o
low		a

Lexicon[]

Some Proto-Tungusic lexical reconstructions:^[20]:83–87

Proto-Tungusic	Meaning
*pajī	grass
*xilŋü	tongue
*teja	meat cooked in its own juices
*tuńga	five
*teb-	to place, put
*sube-	end, edge, top
*baka-	to find, obtain
*šikēn	urine
*togo	fire
*tuge	winter
*palŋa	palm of the hand
*peli-	to walk
*pulńe	ashes
*dili	head
*tügde	rain
*üse-	to grow
*lümŋe-	to swallow
*aduli	net
*lelu	gusset
*maltu-	to bend
*dulbu	stupid

Relationships with other languages[]

Tungusic is today considered a primary language family. Especially in the past, some linguists have linked Tungusic with Turkic and Mongolic languages in the Altaic language family. However, a genetic, as opposed to an areal, link remains unproven. Others have suggested that the Tungusic languages may be related (perhaps as a paraphyletic outgroup) to the Koreanic, Japonic, or Ainu languages as well (see Macro-Tungusic).

In 2017, Tungusic was again linked to Turkic and Mongolic languages by Martine Robbeets in her "Transeurasian family" (another name for Macro-Altaic). According to Robbeets, Tungusic is closest to Mongolic languages.^[22]

Despite some similarities between the Tungusic and Koreanic languages, Alexander Vovin (2013)^[23] considers Tungusic and Koreanic to be separate, unrelated language groups that share areal rather than genetic commonalities through mutual influence of Goguryeo and Jurchen on each other.

The language of the Avars in Europe which created the Avar Khaganate is believed by some scholars to be of Tungusic origin.^[24]

See also[]

• Lists of endangered languages
• Language death

References[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

Further reading[]

• Aixinjueluo Yingsheng