Oroqen language

Oroqen
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)
Language family	Tungusic Northern Ewenic Evenki group Oroqen; ; ; ;
Dialects	Gankui; Selpechen;
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	orh
Glottolog	oroq1238
ELP	Oroqen

Oroqen (/ˈɒrətʃɛn, ˈɒroʊ-/ ORR-ə-chen, ORR-oh-; Oroqen Urkun; ɔrɔtʃeen ulguur^{[citation needed]}), 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
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
Plosive/ Affricate	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		ə əː	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]^{[failed verification]} 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

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

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

[e25-1] Oroqen at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[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.

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