Oroqen
Oroqėn Urkun; Ороӄэн Уркун
Native toChina and Russia
RegionChina: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Russia: Amur Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai
EthnicityOroqen
Native speakers
China: 800 (2009)[1]
Russia: 400 speakers
Tungusic
  • Northern
    • Evenki
      • Oroqen
Dialects
  • Gankui (Ганкуй) and Selpechen (Сельпэчень)
Latin Alphabet and Cyrillic in (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3orh
Glottologoroq1238
ELPOroqen

Oroqen (Ороӄэн Уркун; Oroqėn Urkun /ˈɒrəɛn, ˈɒr-/; also known as Orochon, Oronchon, Olunchun, Elunchun or Ulunchun) is a Northern Tungusic language spoken in the People's Republic of China and Russia. 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), Heilongjiang in Northeast China and Malyy Urkan River Region, located in Amur Oblast, Russia and locality of Dor Mountain Khabarovsk Krai.[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 and Russian Far East Region:[1]

Dialects

The Gankui dialect is used as the standard dialect for the Oroqen language.

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

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i y u
Near-high ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː
High-mid ə əː o
Low-mid ɛː ɔ ɔː
Low ɑ ɑː

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Oroqen at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  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.