Editing Manchu language (section)

{{Short description|East Asian language}}
{{redirect|Qingwen|the publisher|Chingwin Publishing Group}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Manchu
| nativename       = {{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ<br />ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ}} {{transliteration|mnc|Manju gisun}}
| image            = Manju gisun.svg
| imagescale       = 0.2
| imagecaption     = {{transliteration|mnc|Manju gisun}} written in [[Manchu alphabet|Manchu script]]
| states           = [[China]]
| region           = [[Manchuria]]
| ethnicity        = [[Manchu people|Manchus]]
| speakers         = [[First language|L1]]: 20
| speakers2        = [[Second language|L2]]: Thousands<ref name="takungpao">{{cite news| url=http://news.takungpao.com/paper/q/2015/0426/2982819.html |script-title=zh:抢救满语振兴满族文化 | language=zh | date=26 April 2015 |access-date=14 May 2020 |archive-date=8 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108152605/http://news.takungpao.com/paper/q/2015/0426/2982819.html}}</ref><ref name="chinanews">[https://web.archive.org/web/20220409052318/https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2012/03-06/3720158.shtml China News (originally Beijing Morning Post): Manchu Classes in Remin University (Simplified Chinese)]</ref><ref name="ifeng">[https://web.archive.org/web/20200402064400/http://news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2011_12/12/11251077_0.shtml Phoenix Television: Jinbiao's 10-year Manchu Dreams]</ref>
| date             = 2007
| ref              = e18
| familycolor      = Altaic
| fam1             = [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]]
| fam2             = Southern
| fam3             = [[Jurchenic languages|Jurchenic]]
| fam4             = Manchu–[[Xibe language|Xibe]]
| script           = [[Manchu alphabet]]
| nation           = {{flag|Qing dynasty}}
| iso2             = mnc
| iso3             = mnc
| glotto           = manc1252
| glottorefname    = Manchu
| notice           = IPA
| ancestor         = [[Jurchen language|Jurchen]]
| extinct          = 
| revived          = 1980s
}}
{{Contains special characters|Manchu}}
'''Manchu''' ({{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ<br>ᡤᡳᠰᡠᠨ}} {{transliteration|mnc|Manju gisun}}) is a critically [[endangered language|endangered]] [[Tungusic language]] native to the historical region of [[Manchuria]] in [[Northeast China]].<ref name="UNESCO">
{{cite book |year=2010 |editor-last=Moseley |editor-first=Christopher |title=Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |url=http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/atlas-of-languages-in-danger/ |series=Memory of Peoples |edition=3rd |location=Paris |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |isbn=978-92-3-104096-2 |access-date=2015-04-11 }}</ref> As the traditional native language of the [[Manchu people|Manchus]], it was one of the official languages of the [[Qing dynasty]] (1644–1912) of China, although today the vast majority of Manchus speak only [[Mandarin Chinese]]. Several thousand can speak Manchu as a second language through governmental primary education or free classes for adults in classrooms or online.<ref name="takungpao"/><ref name="chinanews"/><ref name="ifeng"/>

The Manchu language has high historical value for historians of China, especially for the Qing dynasty. Manchu-language texts supply information that is unavailable in Chinese, and when both Manchu and Chinese versions of a given text exist, they provide controls for understanding the Chinese.{{sfnb|Fletcher|1973|p=141}}

Like most [[Siberia]]n languages, Manchu is an [[agglutinative language]] that demonstrates limited [[vowel harmony]]. It has been demonstrated that it is derived mainly from the [[Jurchen language]] though there are many [[loanword|loan words]] from [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and [[Chinese language|Chinese]]. Its script is vertically written and taken from the [[Mongolian script]] (which in turn derives from [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] via [[Old Uyghur alphabet|Uyghur]] and [[Sogdian alphabet|Sogdian]]).<!-- Manchu, like Russian, Hindi, etc. employs [[grammatical gender]] through the use of vowel inflections.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} --> Although Manchu does not have the kind of [[grammatical gender]] found in most European languages, some gendered words in Manchu are distinguished by different stem vowels (vowel inflection), as in {{lang|mnc-Latn|ama}}, 'father', and {{lang|mnc-Latn|eme}}, 'mother'.