Social:Oroqen language

Short description: Tungusic language spoken in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang

Oroqen
Orochon, Oronchon, Olunchun, Elunchun, Ulunchun
Арутчэн Уркун ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur
Pronunciation	/arʊtɕʰen urkun/
Native to	China
Region	China: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang
Ethnicity	Oroqen
Native speakers	3,789 (2009)e25
Language family	Tungusic Northern Ewenic Evenki group Oroqen
Dialects	Gankui Selpechen
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	orh
Glottolog	oroq1238
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. 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:

• 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

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].

Sample text

Listed below are some Oroqen sentences. They are transcribed in Oroqen Phonetic Alphabet. {| class="wikitable " |- | 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 |}

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. 
• Whaley, Lindsay (2004). "Can a Language that Never Existed Be Saved? Coming to terms with Oroqen language revitalization". 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". 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 (Tambov: Gramota) 8 (2): 189–194. https://www.gramota.net/eng/materials/2/2016/8-2/56.html. 
• 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). "SHS Web Conf.". 168. pp. 03019. doi:10.1051/shsconf/202316803019. 

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