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The Manchu alphabet ( mnc, m=, v=manju hergen, a=manju hergen) is the alphabet used to write the now nearly-extinct
Manchu language Manchu (Manchu:, ) is a critically endangered East Asian Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchus, it was one of the official languages of the Qi ...
. A similar script is used today by the
Xibe people The Sibe or Xibo (, , ; ), are a Tungusic-speaking East Asian ethnic group living mostly in Xinjiang, Jilin and Shenyang in Liaoning. The Sibe form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by China, and had a recorded population of 190 ...
, who speak a
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
considered either as a dialect of Manchu or a closely related,
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...
language. It is written vertically from top to bottom, with columns proceeding from left to right.


History


''Tongki fuka akū hergen''

According to the ' (; ), in 1599 the
Jurchen Jurchen may refer to: * Jurchen people, Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century ** Haixi Jurchens, a grouping of the Jurchens as identified by the Chinese of the Ming Dynasty ** Jianzhou Jurchens, a grouping of ...
leader
Nurhaci Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing (), was a Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late 16th century in Manchuria. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he reigned ...
decided to convert the
Mongolian alphabet Various Mongolian writing systems have been devised for the Mongolian language over the centuries, and from a variety of scripts. The oldest and native script, called simply the Mongolian script, has been the predominant script during most of ...
to make it suitable for the Manchu people. He decried the fact that while illiterate Han Chinese and Mongolians could understand their respective languages when read aloud, that was not the case for the Manchus, whose documents were recorded by Mongolian scribes. Overriding the objections of two advisors named Erdeni and G'ag'ai, he is credited with adapting the Mongolian script to Manchu. The resulting script was known as () — the "script without dots and circles".


''Tongki fuka sindaha hergen''

In 1632, Dahai added
diacritical marks A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
to clear up a lot of the ambiguity present in the original Mongolian script; for instance, a leading ''k'', ''g'', and ''h'' are distinguished by the placement of no diacritical mark, a dot, and a circle, respectively. This revision created the standard script, known as () — the "script with dots and circles". As a result, the Manchu alphabet contains little ambiguity. Recently discovered manuscripts from the 1620s make clear, however, that the addition of dots and circles to Manchu script began before their supposed introduction by Dahai. Dahai also added the ''tulergi hergen'' ("foreign/outer letters"): ten graphemes to facilitate Manchu to be used to write Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan loanwords. Previously, these non-Manchu sounds did not have corresponding letters in Manchu. Sounds that were transliterated included the aspirated sounds k' (Chinese pinyin: k, ), k (g, ), x (h, ); ts' (c, ); ts (ci, ); sy (si, ); dz (z, ); c'y (chi, ); j'y (zhi, ); and ž (r, ).


19th century – present

By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were three styles of writing Manchu in use: standard script (''ginggulere hergen''), semi-cursive script (''gidara hergen''), and cursive script (''lasihire hergen''). Semicursive script had less spacing between the letters, and cursive script had rounded tails. The Manchu alphabet was also used to write Chinese. A modern example is in ''Manchu: a Textbook for Reading Documents'', which has a comparative table of romanizations of Chinese syllables written in Manchu letters, Hànyǔ Pīnyīn and
Wade–Giles Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' o ...
. Using the Manchu script to transliterate Chinese words is a source of loanwords for the Xibe language. Several Chinese-Manchu dictionaries contain Chinese characters transliterated with Manchu script. The Manchu versions of the ''
Thousand Character Classic The ''Thousand Character Classic'' (), also known as the ''Thousand Character Text'', is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand ...
'' and ''
Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known fo ...
'' are actually the Manchu transcription of all the Chinese characters. In the ''Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation'' ( ) commissioned by the
Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 ...
, the Manchu alphabet is used to write Evenki (
Solon Solon ( grc-gre, Σόλων;  BC) was an Athenian statesman, constitutional lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic Athens.Aristotle ''Politic ...
) words. In the '' Pentaglot Dictionary'', also commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, the Manchu alphabet is used to transcribe
Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...
and Chagatai (related to Uyghur) words.


Alphabet


Method of teaching

Despite its alphabetic nature, the Manchu "alphabet" was traditionally taught as a
syllabary In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (option ...
to reflect its
phonotactics Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
. Manchu children were taught to memorize the shapes of all the syllables in the language separately as they learned to write and say right away "''la'', ''lo''", etc., instead of saying "''l'', ''a'' — ''la''"; "''l'', ''o'' — ''lo''"; etc. As a result, the syllables contained in their syllabary do not contain all possible combinations that can be formed with their letters. They made, for instance, no such use of the consonants ''l'', ''m'', ''n'' and ''r'' as English; hence if the Manchu letters ''s'', ''m'', ''a'', ''r'' and ''t'' were joined in that order, a Manchu would not pronounce them as "smart". Today, it is still divided among experts on whether the Manchu script is alphabetic or syllabic. In China, it is considered syllabic, and Manchu is still taught in this manner, while in the West it is treated like an alphabet. The alphabetic approach is used mainly by foreigners who want to learn the language, as studying the Manchu script as a syllabary takes longer.


Twelve ''uju''

The syllables in Manchu are divided into twelve categories called ''uju'' (literally "head") based on their syllabic codas (final phonemes). Here lists the names of the twelve ''uju'' in their traditional order:
a, ai, ar, an, ang, ak, as, at, ab, ao, al, am.
Each ''uju'' contains syllables ending in the coda of its name. Hence, Manchu only allows nine final consonants for its closed syllables, otherwise a syllable is open with a monophthong (''a'' ''uju'') or a diphthong (''ai'' ''uju'' and ''ao'' ''uju'').The syllables in an ''uju'' are further sorted and grouped into three or two according to their similarities in pronunciation and shape. For example, ''a uju'' arranges its 131 licit syllables in the following order:
a, e, i; o, u, ū; na, ne, ni; no, nu, nū; ka, ga, ha; ko, go, ho; kū, gū, hū; ba, be, bi; bo, bu, bū; pa, pe, pi; po, pu, pū; sa, se, si; so, su, sū; ša, še, ši; šo, šu, šū; ta, da; te, de; ti, di; to, do; tu, du; la, le, li; lo, lu, lū; ma, me, mi; mo, mu, mū; ca, ce, ci; co, cu, cū; ja, je, ji; jo, ju, jū; ya, ye; yo, yu, yū; ke, ge, he; ki, gi, hi; ku, gu, hu; k'a, g'a, h'a; k'o, g'o, h'o; ra, re, ri; ro, ru, rū; fa, fe, fi; fo, fu, fū; wa, we; ts'a, ts'e, ts; ts'o, ts'u; dza, dze, dzi, dzo, dzu; ža, že, ži; žo, žu; sy, c'y, jy.
In general, while syllables in the same row resemble each other phonetically and visually, syllables in the same group (as the semicolons separate) bear greater similarities.


Punctuation

The Manchu alphabet has two kinds of punctuation: two dots (), analogous to a period; and one dot (), analogous to a comma. However, with the exception of lists of nouns being reliably punctuated by single dots, punctuation in Manchu is inconsistent, and therefore not of much use as an aid to readability. The equivalent of the question mark in Manchu script consists of some special particles, written at the end of the question.


Jurchen script

The
Jurchens Jurchen (Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manch ...
of a millennium ago became the ancestors of the Manchus when
Nurhaci Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing (), was a Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late 16th century in Manchuria. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he reigned ...
united the
Jianzhou Jurchens The Jianzhou Jurchens () were one of the three major groups of Jurchens as identified by the Ming dynasty. Although the geographic location of the Jianzhou Jurchens changed throughout history, during the 14th century they were located south of ...
(1593–1618) and his son subsequently renamed the consolidated tribes as the "Manchu". Throughout this period, the
Jurchen language Jurchen language ( zh, t=女真語, p=Nǚzhēn yǔ) was the Tungusic language of the Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the rulers of the Jin dynasty in northern China of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is ancestral to the Manchu language. ...
evolved into what we know as the
Manchu language Manchu (Manchu:, ) is a critically endangered East Asian Tungusic language native to the historical region of Manchuria in Northeast China. As the traditional native language of the Manchus, it was one of the official languages of the Qi ...
. Its script has no relation to the Manchu alphabet, however. The
Jurchen script The Jurchen script (Jurchen: ) was the writing system used to write the Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in northeastern China in the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script ...
was instead derived from the Khitan script, itself derived from Chinese characters.


Unicode

The Manchu alphabet is included in the Unicode block for Mongolian.


See also

*
Mongolian script The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cyrillic ...
*
Transliterations of Manchu There are several systems for transliteration of the Manchu alphabet which is used for writing the Manchu and Xibe languages. These include transliterations in Latin script and in Cyrillic script. Transliteration in Latin script ( romanizatio ...
*
Clear Script Clear Script ( xal, , Тодо бичиг, , ''todo biçig''; mn, Тод бичиг, ''tod bichig'', , bxr, Тодо бэшэг, ''Todo besheg'' (), or just todo) is an alphabet created in 1648 by the Oirat Buddhist monk Zaya Pandita for t ...


References


Further reading

* * * *


External links


Abkai — Unicode Manchu/Sibe/Daur Fonts and Keyboards



Manchu script generator (Romanization → Manchu script (also for download))

ManchuFont
— an
OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
font for Manchu writing
Jurchen Script
{{list of writing systems Alphabets
Alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...
1599 introductions Letters with final form