Oroqen
Oroqen Language
Oroqen Urkun;
ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur
Native toChina
RegionChina: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang
EthnicityOroqen
Native speakers
c. 3,789 (2009)[1]
Tungusic
Dialects
  • Gankui and Selpechen
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3orh
Glottologoroq1238
ELPOroqen

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]

Sample text

Listed below are some Oroqen sentences.[3] They are transcribed in Oroqen Fonetic Alphabet.

Arian has three elder brothers.Arian ilan axtʃi.
The children are all come in.Kʊxɑː səl ku əmtʃə.
Arian's elder brother is coming.Arian axninin əmtʃə.
I'm a student.Pi pite turan.
You're taller than meʃi mintu gʊkta.
The house is neat and tidy.Ər dʒuː tʃaldaː le
Arian untied the ropeArian uʃixəmʊə puditʃə
How many children do you have?ʃi ati kʊxa tʃi piʃiniʔ
Arian took off his clothes

Arian kantaxʊə purmə ədədʒə.

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].[4]

Notes

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