Oroqen language

Oroqen
Orochon, Oronchon, Olunchun, Elunchun, Ulunchun
Арутчэн Уркун
ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur
Pronunciation/arʊtɕʰen urkun/
Native toChina
RegionChina: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang
EthnicityOroqen
Native speakers
3,789 (2009)[1]
Tungusic
  • Northern
Dialects
  • Gankui
  • Selpechen
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3orh
Glottologoroq1238
ELPOroqen
Oroqen is classified as Critically Endangered by the
UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Oroqen (/ˈɒrətʃɛn, ˈɒroʊ-/ ORR-ə-chen, ORR-oh-; Oroqen Urkun; ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur), 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.[1] It is spoken by the Oroqen people of Inner Mongolia (predominantly the Oroqin Autonomous Banner) and Heilongjiang in Northeast China.[2]

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:[1]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar 		Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
Affricate 		voiceless p t t͡ʃ k
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative ɸ ʃ x ~ [ɣ] ~ [h]
Rhotic r
Approximant l 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]

Sample text

Listed below are some Oroqen sentences.[4] They are transcribed in Oroqen Phonetic Alphabet.

Arian has three elder brothers. Arian ilan axči
The children are all come in. Kúxä səl ku əmčə
Arian's elder brother is coming. Arian axninin əmčə
I'm a student. Pi pite turan
You're taller than me ši mintu gúkta
The house is neat and tidy. Ər jü čaldä le
Arian untied the rope Arian ušixəmúə pudičə
How many children do you have? ši ati kúxa či pišiniʔ
Arian took off his clothes

Arian kantaxúə purmə ədəjə

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Oroqen at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Did you know Oroqen is severely endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  3. ^ Hu, Zengyi (1986). Elunchun-yu jianzhi [Concise grammar of Oroqen]. Beijing: National Minorities Publ. pp. 3–19.
  4. ^ "WOLD -". wold.clld.org. Retrieved 2023-08-01.

Further reading

  • Grenoble, Lenore A.; Whaley, Lindsay J. (1999). "Language policy and the loss of Tungusic languages". Language & Communication. 19 (4): 373–386. doi:10.1016/S0271-5309(99)00011-7.
  • Whaley, Lindsay J.; Li, Fengxiang (2000). "Oroqen Dialects". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 105–30. JSTOR 41928224.
  • Whaley, Lindsay (2004). "Can a Language that Never Existed Be Saved? Coming to terms with Oroqen language revitalization". In J. Freeland; D. Patrick (eds.). Language Rights and Language Survival. Routledge. pp. 139–49. ISBN 9781315760155.
  • Fengxiang, Li (2005). "Contact, attrition, and structural shift: evidence from Oroqen". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2005 (173): 55–74. doi:10.1515/ijsl.2005.2005.173.55.
  • Li, Fengxiang; Whaley, Lindsay J. (2009). "Loanwords in Oroqen, a Tungusic language of China". In Martin Haspelmath; Uri Tadmor (eds.). Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 525–544. doi:10.1515/9783110218442.525. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5.
  • Likhua, Yan (2016). "Study of the Contemporary Use of the Oroqen Language in the Province Heilongjiang (People's Republic of China)". Philology. Theory & Practice (in Russian). 8 (2). Tambov: Gramota: 189–194.
  • Морозова Ольга Николаевна, Булатова Надежда Яковлевна, & Андросова Светлана Викторовна (2020). "РЕАЛИЗАЦИЯ ПЕРЕДНЕЯЗЫЧНОГО ЩЕЛЕВОГО /S/ В ЭВЕНКИЙСКОМ И ОРОЧОНСКОМ ЯЗЫКАХ" [Realization of front fricative /S/ in the Evenki and Oroqen languages]. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. Труды института лингвистических исследований, 2 (XVI), 582-607. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/realizatsiya-peredneyazychnogo-schelevogo-s-v-evenkiyskom-i-orochonskom-yazykah (дата обращения: 06.05.2024).
  • Cao, Xinyun (2023). "Development and Suggestions of Oroqen Ethnic Education in China: Based on the Current Situation of Oroqen Language Ecology". SHS Web Conf. Vol. 168. p. 03019. doi:10.1051/shsconf/202316803019.
Oroqen language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Oroqen language test of Wiktionary at Wikimedia Incubator
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