Manchu

(The primary author: Your courses, which are not cancelled, are under the category of "Course A".)

This website is in favour of those who wish to learn the Manchu language. Here are two courses for beginners, and you can choose one of them, since they are independent of one another and their contents are similar. Course A is more academic, and gives you a systemetic view of the grammatical structure of the Manchu language, but it seems a little hard for beginners to begin. Course B (in develop) is more user-friendly and takes a more scientific teaching model which will improve your Manchu level.

Below is the link to the Chinese and Japanese versions of this page.

Chinese: 如果你想阅读本站的中文版请点这里

Japanese:

日本語版はこちら

Introduction
Manchu is a Manchu-Tungusic language spoken in Manchuria; it used to be the language of the Manchus, and the official language of the Qing dynasty. Nowadays most Manchus speak Chinese and there are far fewer than 60 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of more than 10 million ethnic Manchus. Most of these native speakers now live in Ilan Boo (Sanjiazi in Mandarin Chinese; 三家子) which is a small village about 40km north of Qiqihar (齐齐哈尔) in Heilongjiang province. Although the spoken language is nearly extinct in Manchuria, the Manchu language lives on in the form of one of its dialects Sibe, which still has 30,000 speakers most of which live in Cabcal Sibe Autonomous County (察布查尔锡伯自治县) near Ili (伊犁) in Xinjiang province, Western China.

Manchu is a member of the Manchu-Tungusic language family which is believed by some scholars to be a branch of the Altaic language family (along with Mongolic and Turkic). Manchu is an agglutinative language that features both vowel harmony and a Subject-Object-Verb sentence structure. Although it is not particularly hard to learn (especially in comparison to Chinese) many would wonder why you would bother learning a language that is spoken by so few people and whose future does not look that promising. Some reasons could include:
 * An interest in Manchu-Tungusic languages
 * An interest in Qing dynasty history, especially considering the amount of archival material in Manchu
 * General intellectual curiosity
 * To gain a deeper understanding of Manchu culture
 * The script is pretty
 * It is an easy way to read the Chinese classics (most of them were translated into Manchu)

Course A
The book consists of 24 lessons, and can be divided into three sections:

Section 1: Introduction to Manchu grammar and the Manchu script

This section includes 12 lessons, each of which includes a short text or dialogue followed by a vocabulary list and then an introduction to a particular grammatical feature of the language.

Note:
 * Lesson 11 is a summary of all the grammatical features from lessons 1-10 and can be used for revision or can be printed out to be used as a basic Manchu grammar.
 * The Manchu script is not taught until lesson 12 (contrary to most textbooks) due to the difficult nature of the script and the fact that it is much easier to learn the script once you possess a basic vocabulary and understanding of the phonetic features of the Manchu language.

Section 2: Readings in the Manchu Language

This section includes 12 readings in the Manchu Language. Each reading includes a vocabulary list, as well as a translation and explanation of the text.

Section 3: Other information on the Manchu Language

This section includes a vocabulary list, further vocabulary as well as some general information on Tungusic languages and a brief introduction to the Jurchen language and script.

At the bottom of the page there is also a link to the Online Library of Manchu Language Texts which is currently part of this Wikibook. The library is in development.

Course B
Course B (in development) is a new textbook for Manchu language, which aims to avoid the obstacle of learning when facing a boring list of lots of grammar rules or language materials translated to another language which is difficult for beginners. This course has applied the theories of foreign language acquisition. The author hopes this course can enables you to learn Manchu quickly and well.

Elementary
Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Lesson 10

Pre-Intermediate
(in develop)

Intermediate
Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Advanced
Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Links
Manchu-language Wikipedia(test)

Online Library of Manchu Language Texts


The Online Library of Manchu Language Texts aims to provide a one stop collection of Manchu texts that are no longer subject to copyright laws. All texts use the Mollendorff transliteration method, which will mean that any user that wants to download the text can just cut and paste the content straight from the page. As this is a wiki users will be able to make corrections and monitor changes in the texts to ensure accuracy. To visit the online library Click Here!

Now the library has been moved to Wikisource,