The Tungus LanguagesAuthor(s): Ivan A. LopatinReviewed work(s):Source: Anthropos, Bd. 53, H. 3./4. (1958), pp. 427-440Published by: Anthropos InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40453273 .Accessed: 16/06/2012 16:39
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The Tungus Languages
By Ivan A. Lopatin
Contents : Introduction
1. The geographic distribution of the Tungus-speaking peoples 2. Classification of the Tungus languages 3. History of the discovery and study of the Tungus languages 4. Characteristics of the Tungus languages
a) Phonetic key b) Comparison of Evenki with Manchu c) The other Tungus languages
5. Description of individual Tungus languages a) The Manchu language
a The language of the Goldi (Nanai) b) The Southern Group
ß The Orochee language c) The Northern Group
Introduction
The present article has been suggested by the recently published book „Die tun- gusischen Sprachen. Versuch einer vergleichenden Grammatik" by Johannes Benzing x
and is a review and an appraisal of the book. On the other hand the appearance of the present article seems justifiable to English readers since in recent times the Tungus languages have attracted the attention of many scholars - twenty articles and books have been published in German alone since 1952 and many Russian publications have also appeared - but practically nothing has been published in English 2.
J. Benzing's book originated as a result of his study of the languages of four school text books published in Soviet Russia in four Tungus languages : Goldi, Udehe, Tungus proper, and Lamut, as well as of some other publications. Originally his com- parative grammar was founded on only these four languages and on literary Manchu. But later on he received V. I. Tsintsius' book on the comparative phonetics of the
1 Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz. Abhand- lungen der geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse. Jahrgang 1955, Nr. 11. Wies- baden 1956.
2 Cf. Neuerscheinungen und Arbeitsplane auf dem Gebiet der Altaistik und ¿en- tralasienkunde. Ein Bericht von A. von Gabain. ZDMG 106, 1956, p. *40*.
428 IVAN A. LoPATIN Anthropos.53. 1958
Tungus-Manchu languages 8 which included not only the four literary Tungus languages mentioned above but also Olchi, Orok, Orochon, Solon, and Negidal, which are still non-literary Tungus languages. J. Benzing then borrowed the linguistic material on these languages from Tsintsius' book and added it to his book.
1. The geographic distribution of the Tungus-speaking peoples
At the present day the Tungus-speaking peoples live in East Siberia, the Russian Far East or the Amur Area (Priamursky krai), in Manchuria, and in the Ili Area of Central Asia, the distribution of each people being as follows : the Goldi on both banks of the Middle Amur approximately between the Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) and the town Bogorodskoe, also on the Ussuri, and on the Lower Sungari ; their neighbours the Olchi on the Lower Amur down from the Goldi ; the Orochée on the rivers which flow into the Gulf of Tartary in the neighborhood of the Sovetskaia Gavan, on the Tumnin, the Hungari, and the Ai rivers ; the Udehe on the right tribu- taries of the Ussuri - the Iman, the Bikin, the Khor -, on the right tribu- taries of the Amur - the Onyui, and Hungari - , and on the Samarga, the Nelma, and the Edin which flow into the Gulf of Tartary ; the Orok on Sakhalin Island ; the Negidal or the Nagda, on the Amgun ; the Lamut on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, stretching to the North as far as Kamchatka ; the Solon live in Northern Manchuria and the Ili Area ; and the Tungus proper live in small groups on a vast territory of Eastern Siberia and Manchuria from the Yenisey and the Taz in the West as far east as the middle of Man- churia ; the Sibo live in Northwestern China and in the Ili District of the Sintsyan Uigur Autonomous Region of Soviet Russia.
It is strange that neither J. Benzing nor his Russian colleagues nor any other Tungus scholar even mentions the Sibo, a Tungus people of Central Asia. It becomes even stranger if we take into consideration the numbers of the population of the Tungus tribes. The Sibo then surpass all other Tungus tribes with the exception of the Manchu, taken together. Indeed their number is about 30,000 while that of all other Tungus tribes is about 28,000. For some reason the Russian Tungus scholars have concentrated their attention on the Tungus tribes of Siberia and the Russian Far East and other scholars follow them, the Sibo thus being forgotten. Only W. L. Kotvicz, Professor of the University of St. Petersburg and the formost authority on Manchu- Tungus languages in former days, included the Sibo in his classification together with the Manchu.
2. Classification of the Tungus languages
Up to recent times the majority of the Tungus peoples have remained as primitive fishing and hunting tribes or as nomadic reindeer breeders ; but the Manchu, also a member of the Tungus linguistic group, attained a fair
8 V. I. Tsintsius, Sravnitelnaia fonetika tunguso -manchurskih iazykov. Gosudarstv. uckebno-pedag. izd-vo Minister stvaprosveshch. RSFSR., Leningr. otdelenie. Leningrad 1949.
The Tungus Languages 429
level of civilization and, as is well known, under the Manchu Dynasty (1644-191 1) played an important part in the political life of the Far East. It should be kept in mind, however, that the Manchu have not yet disappeared altogether : about 100,000 of them are still living and speaking their language in the Nonni Basin, especially around the towns Tsitsigar, Aigun, and Mergen ; although there are practically no records of their vernacular. The Manchüs in the Aigun district are the descendants of soldier-colonists planted by the early Manchu emperors in the Amur Valley for the protection of the boundary line between China and Russia.
The first more or less satisfactory classification of the Tungus and their languages was made by the Russian Academician Leopold von Schrenk who divided them into four groups :
I. Dahur and Solon II. Manchu, Goldi, and Orochee III. Orochon, Maneghir, Birar, and Kili IV. Olchi, Orok, Negidal, and Samaghir4
S. Patkanov modified this classification adding to the third group the Tungus proper ö. L. Sternberg attempted to classify the Tungus peoples according to their native names as follows : The Nanai Group : Goldi, Olchi, Orok, and Orochee The Evenki Group : the nomadic Tungus reindeer-breeders, the Orochon tribes of the
Upper Amur, and the Negidal The Manchu Group : Manchu, Dahur, and Solon «
The best of all the earlier classifications is one offered by P. P. Schmidt in which he classifies the Tungus into two groups : The Tungus Group : Tungus proper, Orochon, Maneghir, Solon, Lamut, Negidal, and
Samaghir The Manchu Group : Goldi, Olchi, Orok, and Orochee, the latter consisting of three
tribes : Orochee, Kiakar, and Udehe 7
In comparing the classifications given above we see that the principle involved is either the theory of the close relation between the Tungus and the Manchu languages or the reverse, the theory of the negation of too close a relation. Half a century ago some scholars thought that "It was not justi- fiable to place under the same roof both Tungus and Manchu*' 8. Some other linguists believed that "although there was no doubt about a remote relation- ship between Tungus and Manchu such a relationship was, nevertheless, too much exaggerated by certain scholars" 9.
4 Leopold von Schrenk, Ob inorodtsakh Amurskogo ktaia. Imper. Akad. Nauk. 1, 1883.
6 S. Patkanov, Opyt geografii i statistiki tungusskikh plemyon Sibiri. Zapiski Imper. geograf. obshch. 31, 1906 1.
• L. Sternberg, Gilyaki, orochi, goldy, negidaltsy i ainy. Dalgiz. Habarovsk. 7 P. P. Schmidt, Etnografia Dalnego Vostoka. Sbormk « Vivat Academia », p. 30.
Vladivostok 1915. 8 W. Bang, Ural-altaische Forschungen. Mongolisch-tungusische btudien. Leip-
zig 1890. • Schmidt, op. cit. p. 30.
430 IVAN A. LoPATIN Anthropos 53. 1958
Recent studies have demonstrated quite convincingly, however, that all the Tungus languages are close to the Manchu in many respects. As to anthro- pologists, they now classify the Manchu as a definitely Tungus people. At any rate among our contemporary linguists there are such authorities who have written fundamental works justifying the term "The Tungus-Manchu Linguistic Group".
At the present time linguists count ten Tungus languages in Eastern Siberia and in the Russian Far East :
The Northern Group The Southern Group Tungus proper or Evenki 10 Manchu Lamut or Eveni Goldi or Nanai Negidal (Nagda) or Elkenbeie Olchi or Nani Solon Orok or Sakhalin Nani
Udehe or Ude Orochee
Benzing not only accepts this classification but even emphazises the importance and suitability of it. He also gives the latest detailed classification of V. I. Tsintsius with a complete list of the dialects. Since this list demon- strates the dialectic wealth of the Tungus languages I consider it worth while to give it here.
The Southern or Manchu Group
1. Manchu 3. Udehe 2. Goldi or Nanai A. The Udehe-proper dialect
A. The Nanai-proper dialect a) Hungari a) Torgon (literary language) b) Anyui b) Kurb-Urmi c) Samarghi c) Gorin (Samaghir) d) Khor (literary language)
B. The Sungari dialect *) Bikin C. The Olchi dialect /) Iman D. The Orok dialect B. The Orochee dialect
The Northern or the Tungus Group
4. Evenki C. The eastern dialect (Orochon) A. The northern dialect (Erbogochen) a) Verkhne-Olekma (Upper Olekma)
a) Ilimpi b) Nizhne-Olekma (Lower-Olekma) b) Erbogochen c) Uchur
B. The southern dialect (Katanghi) di Zeya"Bureia aj Sym e) Tuguro-Chumikan b) Podkamennaya Tunguska (liter- ^ Ayano-Maya
ary language) D The Negidal dialect c) Tokmino-Tutur x T XT . , , J' XT- u XT • a) x T L°wer XT Negidal
. , , d) XT- Nizhne-Nepi u XT *
• ,; TT XT ., , / __ ̂̂ * ., , b) ' Upper TT ^ Negidal XT & ., ,
e) __ Northern ^^ Baikal ., , ' ^ &
/) Taloch E. The Solon dialect
10 The Soviet Russian Government has changed the pre-revolutionary names of the Tungus native tribes. In the list above the new names follow the old ones.
The Tungus Languages 431
5. Eveni (Lamut) /) Indigirka
The eastern dialect g) Tompon x v i rx i B- The western dialect
a) x v Kolyma-Omolon i rx i
b) Oloi (literary language) a) Sarkvr
c) Kamchatka b) Lamunchin
d) Okhotsk c) Yukaghir e) Upper Kolyma C. The Arman dialect n
3. History of the discovery and study of the Tungus languages In the book under consideration Benzing does not give the history of
the discovery and research of the Tungus languages but since this subject is so important for the understanding of the present state of the Tungus philology and even for an appreciation of his own book a brief account of it seems necessary.
The first contact between the Russians and the Tungus proper (Evenki) was established ill 1607 when the Cossacks reached the Yenisey River and founded Fort Turukhansky. The Goldi and the Olchi became known to the Russians after the Expedition of Poyarkov to the Amur in 1643-1645, and especially after the Expedition of Khabarov to the same country in 1646-1653. The Orochee, the Russians met only about the time when the Ussuri Area was occupied by Russia according to the 1860 Treaty of Peking.
The first West-Europeans to make an acquaintance with the Tungus peoples were Roman Catholic missionaries. Thus Father Ysbrantes Ides 12, acting as the ambassador of Peter the Great to China, on his journey across Manchuria met the Dahurs. In 1709 Jesuit missionaries J. B. Regis, P. Jar- toux, and E. X. Frideli i, commissioned by the Chinese Emperor Khang-Hi to obtain geographic information for a conjectured map of Manchuria, traveled extensively in this country, visited the Amur, and later published some data concerning the Tungus tribes. Father M.-P. de la Brüniere extended his missionary work to the Lower Amur and met martyrdom at the hands of the Gilyaks in 1846 13. In 1850 the Manchurian Apostolic Vicar commissioned Venault, an associate of de la Brüniere, to investigate this bloody crime, and for this reason Father Venault made a journey from Ashe-o on the Sungary to the Gilyak territory on the Lower Amur. He crossed the territory of the Goldi and the Olchi, and published some information about them14.
As to studies of the Tungus languages the first serious attempt was made by the Finnish linguist Matthew A. Castren (1813-1852). He made expe- ditions to Siberia, wrote a Tungus grammar, and published some other works
11 Tsintsius, op. cit. pp. 12-13. 12 Ysbrantes Ides, Dreijaarige Reise naar China te Lande gedaan door den
Moskovischen Aígezant. Amsterdam 1704. 13 The Russian Academician Leopold von Schrenk visited the place of the murder
and published the results of his investigation. Op. cit., vol. 2, p. 78. 14 C.-J. Venault, Excursion dans les parties inter, de la Mandchoune, 1850. Nouv.
Annales des Voyages, 5e sér., 1852, t. 30. - Fathers de la Brüniere and Venault were members of the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris.
432 Ivan A. Lopatin Anthropos 53. 1958
on the Tungus language. However, Castren did not extend his expeditions to the Amur Area- for the reason that in his time this country did not yet belong to the Russian Empire.
The first scholar to reach the country of the Goldi and the Olchi was the Academician Leopold von Schrenk who in 1854 was commissioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences to make a study of the Amur natives. He stayed one year on the Lower Amur and traveled extensively in that area. Being a naturalist and an ethnographer he did not, however, make a study of the native languages his chief task.
After the Schrenk Expedition Russian Orthodox missionaries started their proselytizing work in this new territory. Some of them acquired a fair command of Tungus and Goldi and certain others were themselves native Goldi. Although their interest in the native languages was only practical (the language as a tool only) still some of them made a contribution to Tungus linguistics. Thus the Archpriest A. Orlov published "Notes Concerning the Languages of the Goldi and the Hodzen" 15. Father Prokopy Protodiakonov compiled a Goldi-Russian Dictionary which ultimately was published in 1901 16. He also translated into Goldi the Gospel according to St. Matthew, a prayer book, other religious books, a Goldi primer, and even "Instructions for Curing Diphtheria"17.
On reading the manuscript of A. Protodiakonov's "Goldi Dictionary" Ivan Zakharov, Professor of Manchu at the Imperial University in St. Peters- burg, came to the conclusion that a close relationship existed between Goldi and Manchu, an opinion which he made public in a brief note in a periodical of the Russian Geographic Society18.
In 1855 the Siberian Branch of the Russian Geographic Society made an expedition for the exploration of the Amur and in 1860 a similar expedition for the exploration of the Ussuri, both being headed by the naturalist R. Maak. A. Brylkin, a member of the Ussuri Expedition, studied the Goldi language and the result of this study, "Notes on the Properties of the Language of the Khodzen and the Khodzen Dictionary", was included in the publications of the Expedition 19. On the basis of these publications W. Grübe compiled a Goldi-German Dictionary20. In 1909 W. Kotvicz published some Goldi texts collected by I. A. Dobrolovsky 21. B. Baratosi-Balogh, a Hungarian
16 A. Orlov, Zametka o iazykegoldov i hodzenov. Irkutskie eparhialnye vedomosti, 1869. 16 Prokopii Protodiakonov, Goldski slovar. I zv estia Vostochnogo Instituía. Vla-
divostok 1901. 17 All these were published by the Orthodox Missionary Society in Kazan in
1881-1889. 18 Izvestia Imperatorskogo Ruskogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva, 1876. 19 A. Brylkin, Zamechania 0 svoistvah iazyka hodzenov i hodzenski slovar. R. Maak,
Puteshestvie pò doline reki Ussuri. Vol. 1, St. P. 1861. By the name "Khodzen" the author here refers to the Goldi.
20 W. Grube, Goldisch-deutsches Wörterverzeichniss. Rossiiskaia Imperatorskaia Akademia Nauk, 1900.
21 W. Kotvicz, Materialy dita izuchenia tungusskih iazykov. Jivaia Sfarina, 1909, book 70-71, Nos. 2-3.
The Tungus Languages 433
Professor, made two trips to the Amur for the purpose of studying the Tungus and other native languages, the last trip being in 1914. Peter P. Schmidt, Professor of the Institute of Oriental Languages in Vladivostok, visited the Tungus natives of the Amur Area and the results of his studies were published in four articles by the University of Latvia 22.
Since 1930 a number of publications have been made by scholars of various nationalities, but mostly by Germans and Russians. In the field of Tungus philology in general the following books and articles were published : S. M. Schirokogorov, "Notes on the Bilabialization and Aspiration in the Tungus Languages", in: Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 7, 1930. - N. Poppe, Über ein Verbin- dungssuffíx im Tungusischen (Commentationes Litterarum Societatis Esthonicae 30, 1938). - K. H. Menges, The Function and Origin of the Tungus Tense in -ra and some related questions of Tungus Grammar (Language 19, 1943). - O. P. Sunik, Ocherki po sintaksisu tunguso-manchurskih iazykov. 1947. - V. I. Tsintsius, Problemy sravnitelnoi grammatiki tunguso-manchurskih iazykov. IAN 7, 1948. - O. P. Sunik, O possessivnyh affixah i roditelnom padeje v tunguso-manchurskih iazykah. IAM 11, 1948. - V.l. Tsintsius, Mnojestvennoe chislo v tunguso-manchurskih iazykah. Uchonye Zapiski Leningradskogo Universiteta, seria filolog. nauk 10, 1946. - V. I. Tsintsius, Sravnitelnaia fonetika tunguso-manchurskih iazykov. Leningrad 1949. - Johannes Benzing, Die tungusischen Sprachen, Versuch einer vergleichenden Grammatik ; Abh. AWL Mainz ; Wiesbaden 1955. - V. Dioszegi, Mandschu-tungusische Sprachwissenschaft (demnächst). - Omeljan Pritsak, Die tungusischen Sprachen, Chrestomathie mit jeweils kurzer grammatischer Skizze.
On the individual languages of the Tungus linguistic family there have also been many publication^ since 1930. Thus on Manchu the following works have been published : G. Sanjeyev, Manchuro-mongolskie iazykovye paralleli. ZAK 8-9, 1930. - H. Peeters, Mandschurische Grammatik. Peking 1940 (Monumenta Serica 5). - K. Yamamoto, On the suffix -mbihe in some Manchurian texts. Journal oi the Linguistic Society of Japan 16, 1950. - W. Dioszegi, Wortbildung in Mandschu. - Erich Hauer, Handwörter- buch der Mandschusprache ; I-II : 1952; III: 1955; pp. 10-1032. Wiesbaden.
On the Goldi language the following publications appeared : T. I. Petrova, Kratkii nanaisko-russkii slovar s prilojeniem grammaticheskogo ocherka. Moskva-Leningrad 1935. - T. I. Petrova, Ocherk grammatiki nanaiskogo iazyka. Moskva- Len. 1941. - O. P. Sunik, 0 iazyke nanaitsev na reke Kure. IAN 7, 1948. - T. I. Pe- trova, Obraznye slova v nanaiskom iazyke. IAN 7, 1948. - V. A. Avrorin, O kategoriah vremeni i vida v nanaiskom iazyke. IAM 11, 1948. - V. A. Avrorin, Ob oshibkah v osviashchenii nekotoryh voprosov grammaticheskogo stroia nanaiskogo iazyka i ego istorii. Doklady i soobshcheniya Instituía iazykoznania 5, Moskva, Akademia, 1953.
On Orochee only one publication has appeared since 1930 : V. I. Tsintsius, O morfologii orochskogo iazyka.
On Udehe we have also only one book : E. P. Schneider, Kratkii udeisko-russkii slovar s prilojeniem grammaticheskogo ocherka. Moskva-Leningrad 1936.
22 P. P. Schmidt, The Language of the Negidals. Acta Univers. Latviensis 5, 1922. - - The Language of the Olchas. Ibid., 8, 1923. The Language of the Oroches. Ibid., 17, 1928. The Language of the Samagirs. Ibid., 19, 1928.
434 IVAN A. LoPATIN Anthropos 53. 1958
On Orok the following publications are known : T. I. Petrova, Ocherk grammatiki orokskogo iazyka. - A. Nakanome, Grammatik der Orokko-Sprache. Osaka 19(?). - Jiro Ikegami, Oír the vowel phoneme 0 in the Orokko dialect of Tungus ; Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan 22-23, 1953.
On the Olchi language the following book was published : T. I Petrova, Olchskii dialekt nanaiskogo iazyka. Leningrad 1936.
On Evenki or Tungus proper for a long time there were only a few publications. The most important are : M. A. Castren, „Grundzüge einer tungusischen Sprachlehre, herausgegeben von A. Schief- ner", St. Petersburg 1856, and E. I. Titov, Tungussko-russkii slovar. Irkutsk 1926, but since 1930 the following publications appeared : - G. M. Vasilevich, Evenkiisko- russkii dialectologicheskii slovar. Leningrad 1934. By the same author, Evenkiisko-russkii slovar. Moskva 1940. - By the same author, Ocherk grammatiki evenkiiskogo (tungusskogo) iazyka. Leningrad 1940. - S. M. Shirokogorov, A Tungus Dictionary. The Minzokugaku Kyokai, Tokyo 1944, 296 + 100 + 3 pp. - G. M. Vasilevich, Ocherki dialektologii evenkiisko-tungusskogo iazyka. Leningrad 1949. - Aülis J. Joki, Über die tungusisch- samojedischen Berührungen und die Herkunft des Tungusischen. By the same author, Tungusisches Vokabular ; published by Kai Donner.
On the Lamut or Eveni language these books and articles were published : V. I. Tsintsius i L. D. Rishes, Russko-evenskii slovar, s prilojeniem grammaticheskogo ocherka evenskogo iazyka. Moskva 1952, 778 str. - Johannes Benzing, Lamutische Grammatik, mit Bibliographie, Sprachproben und Glossar. Akad. der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 6. 254 pp. in 8°. Wiesbaden 1955. - L. D. Rishes, Osnovnye osobennosti armanskogo dialekta evenskogo iazyka. Doklady i soobshch. Instituía iazykoznania, 7, Moskva, Akademia, 1955, str. 116-146.
4. Characteristics of the Tungus languages a) Phonetic key
The words of the Tungus languages given here as linguistic examples are transcribed according to the following phonetic alphabet based on in- structions published by the Smithsonian Institution in Phonetic Transcription of Indian Languages, Report of Committee of American Anthropological As- sociation, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 66, No. 6 : a mid-back- wide as in "father" / as in "love" ä low-front- wide as in "man" m as in "man" b as in "bad" n as in "nose" c as sh in "short" y back palatal, velar sonant nasal d as in "dog" o mid -back-narrow-round as in "not" e mid-front-narrow, e. g. French « été » ö mid-front-narrow-round, e. g. French «peu» / as in "foot" r linguo-alveolar always sonant, trilling g as in "good" as in "error" y mid-palatal spirant sonant 5 as in "sit" h glottal spirant surd t as in "ten" * high-front-narrow, e. g. French « fini » ts linguo-alveolar surd fricative like the / as the French /in «je » or the English final ts in "mats"
5 in "measure" tc as ch in "child" ï high-back- wide, e. g. Russian bi in pBiaa u high-back-narrow as in "rule" k as in "kind" ü high-front-round, e. g. French « lune »
The Tungus Languages 435
v as in "vain" sian short i. Superior y is used for the x mid-palatal surd spirant as the German palatalization of consonants (written
ch in „Buch" after the consonant) y used for the sound of German / or Rus- z as in "zero"
The doubling of vowels is used for length as in Finnish.
b) Comparison of Evenki with Manchu
Attempts have recently been made to ascertain how close the relation- ship between Tungus proper (Evenki) and Manchu really is. Thus V. I. Tsin- tsius published a book "Comparative Phonetics of the Tungus-Manchu Languages" in which she makes an attempt to solve this problem. She first compares Manchu with Evenki and then with the other Tungus languages. In phonetics Tsintsius discovers that the following features are common to both Manchu and Evenki : 1) the common basic elements of the harmony of vowels, 2) the absence of the initial r, and the presence of stems ending in a vowel and in the anterior palatal nasal n.
In morphology Tsintsius finds many common features the most striking of which are the following :
1) Common case forms, e. g., the accusative case in Evenki ends in -va, -vo, -ve and in Manchu in -be ; the dative in Evénki terminates in -du, and in Manchu in -de ;
2) Common plural endings. Thus
in Evenki in Manchu -sal (sa + l) -sa -rii (-ri + l) -ri -til (ti + /) -ta, -e, -to
For example :
Singular Plural Evenki baian, rich man baiasal Manchu baian, rich man baiasa Evenki hute, child huril Manchu mafa, grandfather mafari Manchu mama, grandmother mamari Evenki amin, father amtiil Manchu ama, father amata Evenki enin, mother entil Manchu erne, mother emete
3) Common ending of possessive adjectives : Evenki rjii, Manchu -ni, -nge, e. g., Evenki yee, fjiyi, whose ; minyi, my, mine Manchu be, who, veinge, whose ; mininge, my, mine Evenki beye, man ; beyeyi, pertaining to man, human Manchu beye, self, himself, beyninge, one's own, his own
4) Common ending of the present participle : Evenki -rii, Manchu -ra, -re, -ro, e. g., Evenki y eneri, who is walking, Manchu genere.
5) Similarity between the Evenki indefinite verbal adverb and the Manchu present verbal adverb : Evenki -mii, Manchu -me, e. g., Evenki yenemii, while going, Manchu geneme.
6) Similarity of various aspect and voice suffixes : passive Evenki -v, -mu, Manchu -bu, -mbu, e. g., Evenki anav-, to be pushed off, Manchu anabu-.
436 Ivan A. Lopatin Anthropos 53. 1958
7) Many other common word-forming suffixes in names of tools, of users of tools, of action, and of inclination, e. g.,
Evenki Manchu
igdivun, comb itcjifun huvun, saw fufun eviin, a play efin tatigan, a study tatcixian
8) The diminutive form in both languages is practically the same, the endings being in Evenki -kaan, -keen, -hoon and in Manchu -kan, -ken, -kon, e. g., Evenki ponimkaan, long, Manchu golmikan.
9) The first and the second personal pronouns in both languages are the same : bi, I ; si, thou. The declension of the first personal pronoun is also similar :
Evenki Manchu Nom. in bi Ace. mine, mineve mimbe Dat. mindu minde
10) In declension as well as in word formation the first and the second personal pronouns have a different root, e. g.,
Evenki Manchu 1st pers. Nom. bi(min) bi(min) The second (inflectible) 2nd - - si(sin) si(sin) root is inserted in parentheses
11) In both languages there are two forms of the first personal pronoun plural, inclusive and exclusive :
Evenki Manchu mit-miti inclusive muse bu-mun exclusive be-men
12) Demonstrative pronoun-adjectives are common : Evenki Manchu Nom. eri, this ere
tari, that tere Ace. ereeve erebe
taraave terebe Dat. eedu edu
taadu tedu
13) Possessive pronouns, interrogative pronouns, numbers up to 20, and many adverbs of place are either common or similar, e. g.,
Evenki Manchu umtin, one emu dzuur, two tcjuve ilan, three ilan avaskii, whither (directive case) absi eveskii, here ebsi tcaaskii, there tcasi amaskii, backwards amasi doola, inside (locative case) dolo goro, far goro 2S
28 Abridged quotation from V. I. Tsintsius, Sravnitelnaia fonetica, etc., pp. 17-22.
The Tungus Languages 437
In syntax there is the common tendency to place the predicate at the end of the sentence and the adjective before the noun.
V. I. Tsintsius also lists fifteen differences between the Manchu and the Evenki languages, writing in conclusion : "Although Manchu in its gram- matical structure is an agglutinative-suffixal language, in comparison with Evenki it is considerably more meager both in word-change and in word- formation." 24
In connection with the Manchu-Evenki parallels G. Sanjeyev in his review of Tsintsius' book makes the remark that Tsintsius in her linguistic comparison uses literary Manchu exclusively, but it differs considerably from the vefnacular Manchu25. For my part I would say that if Tsintsius had included the vernacular both languages would appear even nearer to each other.
Benzing confirms the conclusions of Tsintsius that Manchu is a typical Tungus language being especially close to the Southern Group. Nevertheless it is an independent language which, due to the higher cultural level of the Manchu people, has a rich, elaborate, and sophisticated vocabulary which developed through loan words at a loss of the national purity and structural regularity.
c) The other Tungus languages The rest of the Tungus-Manchu languages and their dialects, according
to Tsintsius, are links between Evenki on the one hand and Manchu on the other. The common features between them are also harmony of vowels and absence of the initial r. The languages of the Southern Group are characterized by the loss of the terminal y a trace of which remains in the nasalization of the preceding vowel as in Orochee, Olchi and Goldi, or it disappears altogether as in Udehe.
Manchu with its only four cases is morphologically the poorest. It is followed by Goldi with eight cases. The other languages of the Southern Group (Olchi, Orok, Udehe, and Orochee) have nine cases each. The Northern Group is much richer in cases, Evenki having twelve or even thirteen, being the richest. The cases in the Tungus-Manchu languages are as follows : nomina- tive, genitive, dative, accusative-definite and accusative-indefinite, sdesig- native, allative, locative, prolative, directive-locative and directive-prolative, ablative, elative, delative, instrumental, comitative, and vocative. In the Northern Group each of these cases has its own function, but in the Southern Group some cases have the same function, e. g., the accusative-definite and the accusative-indefinite are the same. Similar to this are the following three pairs of cases : the locative and the prolative, the ablative and the elative, the instrumental and the comitative. The directive-locative and the directive- prolative are little used and occur only in Evenki and Eveni.
The suffixes -sal and -sa form the plural in all Tungus-Manchu languages except Udehe. The suffixes -ni, -ngi, and -nge are characteristics of possessive adjectives also in all the Tungus-Manchu languages.
84 Tsintsius, op. cit. p. 27. » Izvestia Akademii Nauk SSSR. Otdel. liter, i iaz. mart-apr. 1951, vol. 10, No. 2,
p. 342.
438 IVAN A. LoPATIN Anthropos 53. 19S8
The pronoun of the first person plural is lacking in Goldi and in Olchi, its function being transferred to the demonstrative pronouns.
The languages of the Northern Group are characterized by terminal consonants. Contrary to this the languages of the Southern Group have no words ending in consonants.
Benzing endorses all these similarities and differences, remarking that "the Northern Group differs definitely from the Southern, Udehe forming a connecting link between the two. Although Udehe exhibits certain typical characteristics of the Northern Group, yet in general structure it belongs to the Southern Group" 26. At this point in his discussion Benzing gives an instructive comparative table showing pronunciation, certain grammatical forms, syntactical principles, terminal and initial sounds, and certain examples of word derivation.
5. Description of individual Tungus languages
a) The Manchu language
The predecessors of the Manchus were the Jurchens who left a number of written documents and certain inscriptions on monuments, judging from which some authorities (W. Grube) think that the language of this people was related to Manchu. The Jurchens founded the Chin Dynasty which reigned in Northern China from 1115 to 1234.
Benzing supports Tsintsius' theory that the name Manchu came from Mangu, the Tungusic name of the Amur river. Thus Manchu simply means "people of the Amur". The Manchu alphabet is a modified Mongolian alphabet but is supplemented by diacritical marks which facilitate reading. Manchu literature started in the beginning of the seventeenth century but from about 1725 its language fell into disuse among the masses and became the ceremonial language of the Manchu Imperial court. Since the fall of the Manchu dynasty in 1911 the language has become extinct, with the exception of the few regions mentioned above where it is still spoken.
As has been mentioned above, grammatically Manchu is the simplest in the whole Tungusic linguistic family. In comparison with the rest of the Tungus languages the word-modifying system of Manchu consists of a limited number of morphemes. A characteristic of Manchu, which distinguishes it from the other Tungus languages, is the absence of possessive affixes of nouns and adjectives. In declension the majority of nouns do not change in the plural. The verb also does not change in the plural nor is it conjugated according to person. Many grammatical changes and modifications of thought are made by means of auxiliary words.
In syntax there is a definite order of words in a sentence with the predi- cate always placed at the end, the dependent clause before the principal clause, the adjective before the noun, and any other subordinate word before
26 Benzing, op. cit. p. 959. The quotations pp. 439 and 440 have been trans- lated by the author of the present article.
The Tungus Languages 439
the main word. Frequent use of various participles and verbal adverbs is also a characteristic of Manchu grammar. Literary Manchu is the product of a long evolution with a strong tendency towards the simplification of gram- mar. A number of obsolete suffixes testifies to the fact that the word-formation in old primitive Manchu was more elaborate than in later literary Manchu. Being the language of a civilized nation Manchu, of course, absorbed a great number of Chinese and Mongolian words.
Concerning the role of Manchu in philology Benzing rightly states the following :
As the oldest literary language of the whole Tungus linguistic family Manchu has a great significance in general Tungusic research. But the structural corruption through foreign influence, with hundreds and hundreds of words artificially created for rendering Chinese ideas, makes it difficult to assign to Manchu the commanding role in Tungus philology, a role which on the ground of the considerable age of the texts one would grant to it 27.
For my part I would add to this statement that before the introduction of writing in the other Tungus languages Manchu was necessary for Tungus scholars and anthropologists as an approach to those unwritten languages, but after the introduction of writing in Evenki, Goldi, Udehe, and Lamut classical Manchu lost even this role.
As has already been mentioned the language of the Sibo, a people of Central Asia, should be classified together with Manchu. However, since little substantial research has been done thus far it is difficult to say anything definite about the Sibo language.
b) The Southern Group
Following Tsintsius' classification Benzing puts Goldi, Sungari, Olchi, and Orok together into the Nanai or the Goldi Linguistic Group. He makes the statement that phonetically and morphologically this group is the closest to Manchu, but that nevertheless Manchu and Nanai are not mutually intelli- gible and, therefore, should be classified as independent languages.
a The language of the Goldi (Nanai). Goldi has practically the same consonants as Orochee, the difference being only in ts, c, and / which are much more common in Goldi than in Orochee. As to the vowels, they too are on the whole the same as those of Orochee. However, there are certain outstanding differences. Thus long vowels are much more common in Goldi than in Orochee. According to Tsintsius there are six normal phonemes : it et a, u, o, ut and ä which are paralleled by six long phonemes : í, ¿, ã, ü, õ, ü, anda28.
Another difference between Goldi and Orochee is the fact that Goldi vowels are of two groups : hard and soft.
Still another important difference is the greater number of diphthongs
27 Benzing, op. cit. p. 960. 28 Tsintsius, op. cit. p. 69.
440 IVAN A. LoPATIN Anthropos 53. 1958
in Goldi than in Orochee. Tsintsius comes to the conclusion that there are fourteen, or even fifteen, possible vowel combinations in Goldi 29.
All Goldi vowels may nasalize. As a rule nasalization takes place in the endings of nouns, adjectives, numbers, and certain participles. Words with a final nasalized vowel differ in meaning from those with the natural vowels, e.g.,
Nasalized Natural
ajan, turtle aja, well poro", top poro, grouse kete", stern hete, too much siru", reindeer siru, file tûrP, payment turi, pea £ean, soda ha, 'another 80
At the present day the Torgon dialect of Goldi (Nanai) is a literary language.
ß The Orochee language. The Orochee consonants may be classified as follows :
Stops Spirants Affricatives Nasals Laterals Boiled consonants Sard Sonant Surd Sonant Surd Sonant Sonant Sonant
Bilabial p b m Dentilabial / v Linguo-alveolar t d s z ts n I r Mid-c-sounds / tc Mid-palatal k g x y Back palatal, velar y Glottal h
Some consonants may palatalize before i, e, and U. The vowels a, e, o, and u are of two kinds : normal and long. Diphthongs are not very common. Only one, ie, has been recorded.
Orochee is so closely related to Udehe that Benzing thinks that "there is no need of inventing a literary language for 600 Orochee ; they may use Udehe as their literary language" 81.
c) The Northern Group According to Tsintsius' classification Benzing puts Tungus proper
(Evenki), Solon, Lamut, and Negidal into the Evenki Linguistic Group. As to the language of the Evenki there are three subdivisions : the Northern or Erbogochen, the Southern or Katanghi, and the Eastern or Orochon, but the distinctions are small. The Katanghi dialect in the Podkamennaya Tun- guska river area has become the literary language for the whole Evenki Group.
The Lamut language (Eveni) is subdivided into three dialects : Western, Eastern, and Arman. Since the majority of the Lamut speak the Eastern dialect it became the literary language for the whole Lamut people.
*» Ibid., pp. 70-71. 80 Ibid., p. 72. 81 Benzing, op. cit. p. 963.
