Oroqen language
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]
| Oroqen | |
|---|---|
| Oroqen Language | |
| ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | China: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang |
| Ethnicity | Oroqen |
Native speakers | c. 3,789 (2009)[1] |
Tungusic
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | orh |
| Glottolog | oroq1238 |
| ELP | Oroqen |
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]
- 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
Sample text
Listed below are some Oroqen sentences.[3] 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 |
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.
Notes
- Oroqen at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

- "Did you know Oroqen is severely endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
- "WOLD -". wold.clld.org. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
- Hu, Zengyi (1986). Elunchun-yu jianzhi [Concise grammar of Oroqen]. Beijing: National Minorities Publ. pp. 3–19.
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.
- 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.
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