Language of the Month: Manchu
By Naoki Watanabe
(ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᠸᠠᠬᠠᠣ/Manju Gisun)
When you think of Chinese history, what language first comes to your mind? Most of
you would probably think of Mandarin or other forms of Chinese like Hakka, Cantonese,
or Dungun. A few of you may think of non-Chinese languages
spoken by ethnicities that at one point or another ruled
vast amounts of or even all of present day China’s
territory. These languages include Mongolian
(which was official in the times of the Yuan
Dynasty), Uyghur (in the areas of the Uyghur
Khaganate), Oirat/Kalmyk (in the former
Dzungarian Khanate), Tibetan (in Tibet), and
many others. However, not many of you may
think of Manchu.
The Manchu language is the best known and arguably
the most widely spoken of the Tungusic languages.
These languages are native to Manchuria and many parts of
Northeastern Asia as well as a small pocket in Xinjiang (where Xibe is spoken). Apart
from Manchu, other languages in this family include Xibe (spoken in Qapqal), Evenki
(spoken in Siberia, Northern Mongolia, and Manchuria), Nanai (spoken in Siberia), the
extinct Jurchen language (spoken by the Jurchens—the ancestors of the Manchus), and
Orok (which is spoken in Sakhalin and Hokkaido).
When most people think of the Yuan Dynasty, the image of Kublai Khan and his Mongol
warriors administering China and speaking Mongolian often comes to mind. However,
when most people think of China’s last and most powerful dynasty—the Qing—most
people just assume that the rulers were Chinese and spoke Chinese. This, however, is not
the case as the Qing Dynasty was established and ruled by a Tungusic ethnic group
known as the Manchus who come from the region of Manchuria (which today consists of
the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, and a part of Inner Mongolia).
The Manchus initially spoke a language known as Jurchen which was developed into
Manchu after Nurhaci ordered the creation of the Manchu script (which is derived from
the Mongolian alphabet). The Manchus were initially quite protective of their language
and continued to use it for administrative purposes after their conquest of China as the
Qing Dynasty. However, as time passed, the Manchus gradually lost proficiency in their
language due to the overwhelming influence of Chinese since Manchus only made up
about 2% of their empire’s population. This was worsened by mass Chinese immigration
to Manchuria in the 19th Century which resulted in the Manchus becoming a minority in
their own homeland and Mandarin eventually becoming the dominant language of the
region and the natives.
Nowadays, Manchu is on the verge of extinction as a native language with the number of
native speakers being between 18 and 70 and all of them being elderly Manchus living in
isolated villages in Heilongjiang. Moreover, out of 10 million ethnic Manchus, only
about a million have some ability in the language. However, there is an active movement
amongst Manchus in recent years to revive their language and due to the abundance of
resources as well as the circumstances of the language, revival is a possibility. The once
completely extinct Hebrew language was revived in Israel due to the availability of
resources on
the language
and due to its
centuries-old
use amongst
Jews as a
liturgical
language.
Manchu is in
an even
better
position due
to the
massive
amounts of
Qing
Dynasty-era
archives and
textbooks
that were
written in the language and also due to the existence of the Xibe people. The Xibe are a
Tungusic people who speak a language that has many similarities to Manchu (to the point
that Xibe is considered by some linguists, such as Jerry Norman, to be a dialect of
Manchu) who were sent to garrison the area of Qapqal in Xinjiang. Due to their
isolation, about 40,000 Xibe still speak their language and many Manchus have been
travelling to Qapqal with the intent of learning Xibe and then using their knowledge of
the language to aid in teaching themselves Manchu. In addition to the Xibe people, the
revival of Manchu is aided by the existence of several autonomous counties in Manchuria
which sometimes contain schools where Manchu is taught as an elective.
If a Japanese person were to study Manchu, he/she would find two things to be incredibly
easy: pronunciation and grammar. Tungusic languages in general have similar sounds to
Japanese and Korean due to centuries of historical contact and possible linguistic
relations and this makes it easy for Japanese people to pronounce them. For the same
reason, the grammar is also similar. An example of this can be seen in the sentence ᠪᠢ
ᠣᠴᠢ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᡤᡠᠷᡠᠨ ᡳ ᠨᠢᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠ ᠃ (bi oci manju gurun i niyalma)—I am a person of Manchuria
(“manju” means Manchu while “gurun” means country or empire). The word “bi” means
“I” while the word “oci” is analogous to the Japanese は or が. The word “i” is
analogous to the Japanese の while “niyalma” here means person but can also be used as
a race or ethnicity (much like the Japanese 人). Another similarity in grammar can be
-ᠮᠪᠢ -mbi which is
used in the same way as the Japanese ます, する, or だ. Verbs such as ᡤᠢᠰᠨᠷᡠᠡᠮᠪᠢ
“gisurembi” (to drink) ᡥᠠᠢᠷᡠᠠᠮᠪᠢ “hairambi” (to love) and ᠣᠮᠢᠮᠪᠢ “omimbi” (to drink) can be
seen in the way verbs end. Manchu verbs almost always end with
directly translated into Japanese as 話します, 愛する, and 飲みます, respectively.
Despite these aspects of the language being relatively easy for Japanese people, there are
also several difficulties. The most notable one is the script as the Manchu script is
somewhat difficult for people who aren’t used to writing systems derived from the
Mongolian script (such as Todo Bichig and the Xibe alphabet). The Manchu script is
very similar to the Mongolian alphabet as it was created under the orders of Nurhaci
when he proposed modifying the Mongolian script with symbols to represent sounds in
Manchu that don’t exist in Mongolian. The script is written from top to bottom with lines
following from left to right in most cases and with commas being marked by a dot and
periods being
marked with
two dots. Apart
from the script,
another
difficulty is in
the
transliteration of
Manchu as
several systems
exist. However,
the most widely
used and wellknown system
for transcribing
Manchu is the
one created by
German
diplomat Paul
Georg von
Möllendorff.
The Möllendorff
System, as it is
called, uses
Roman letters in
the same way
they’re used in
English with a
few exceptions.
These
exceptions are
The Manchu alphabet. Note that it can also
be used like the Roman Alphabet
the use of the letter c to represent the
“ch” sound, the use of x to represent
the “sh” sound, and the use of the letter v to represent the long “u” sound (ū).
Additionally, the letter w is sometimes read with a v sound and there are also 10
characters of the Manchu alphabet that exist specifically to transcribe Chinese words.
One of the peculiarities of studying Manchu is that study materials are relatively easy to
come across if you look for them. This is
in spite of the fact that Manchu speakers
are incredibly difficult to find and
opportunities to use the language (outside
of Manchuria or Qing Dynasty research
circles) are very limited. In my opinion,
the best resource in existence is Manchu:
A Textbook For Reading Documents by
Gertraude Roth Li as this book not only
contains details on Manchu grammar,
pronunciation, script, and mannerisms, it
also contains historical records in the form
of reading samples written in Manchu, an
account of the Manchu conquest of
Dzungaria (and how this contributed to the
survival of Xibe) and even reading
samples and guides on Xibe. Other
noteworthy resources are A Manchu
Grammar, With Analysed Texts by Paul
Georg von Möllendorff, the Manchu
textbook available on Wikibooks, and A
Comprehensive Manchu-English
Dictionary by Jerry Norman. Another
noteworthy resource is the South Korean movie War of the Arrows by Kim Han-min. Set
during the Manchu invasion of Korea in 1636, the actors portraying Manchu characters in
the movie speak Manchu throughout the movie.
Manchu is overall mostly studied for two reasons: to be used as a tool in research on
Qing Dynasty history and to be studied as part of the movement to revive the language
amongst ethnic Manchus. Either way, I believe Manchu is a language that’s worth
studying. Not only is it the most prominent member of the Tungusic language family (as
it was the only one to be used in an empire), Manchu has been incredibly influential to
China’s history and it would be a shame if it became extinct. Furthermore, for those of
you who’re going to Okinawa for the school trip, be sure to look for the Manchu stamps
available at the gift shop in Shuri castle (Manchu stamps were used by the Ryuukyuu
Kingdom in their relations with the Qing Dynasty).
Phrase List
English
Manchu/ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ
Hello
hojo na ᡥᠣᠵᠣ
Thank You
baniha ᠪᠠᠨᠢᡥᠠ
You’re Welcome
ume manggaxara ᡠᠮᠡ
Excuse me
xinde fonjiki ᡧᠢᠨᡩᠡ
Where is the toilet?
abade bi edun karanara?
Goodbye
sirame acaki ᠰᠢᠷᡠᠠᠮᠡ
My name is….
mini gebu oci __ ᠮᠢᠨᠢ
Can you speak Manchu?
ᠨᠠ
inggiri
Japanese
ziben
Chinese
nikan
1
Emu ᠡᠮᡠ
2
Juwe ᠵᠨᠸᠡ
3
Ilan ᠢᠯᠠ
4
Duin ᡩᠨᠢ
5
Sunja ᠰᠨᠨᠵᠠ
ᠮᠠᠨᡤᡤᠠᡧᠠᠷᡠᠠ
ᡫᠣᠨᠵᠢᠬᠢ
ᠠᠪᠠᡩᠡ ᠪᠢ ᠡᡩᠨ ᠬᠠᠷᡠᠠᠨᠠᠷᡠᠠ ᠃
ᠠᠴᠠᠬᠢ
ᡤᠡᠪᡠ ᠣᠴᠢ ___
si oci manju gisurembio? ᠰᠢ
English
Happy Birthday
ᡤᠢᠰᠨ
ᠢᠨᡤᡤᠢᠷᡠᠢ
ᡰᠢᠪᠡ
ᠨᠢᠬᠠ
banjiha arambi ᠪᠠᠨᠵᠢᡥᠠ
ᠠᠷᡠᠠᠮᠪᠢ
ᠣᠴᠢ ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ ᡤᠢᠰᠨᠷᡠᠡᠮᠪᠢᠣ᠃