Oroqen (; also known as Orochon, Oronchon, Olunchun, Elunchun or Ulunchun) is a Northern Tungusic language spoken in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Dialects are Gankui and Heilongjiang. Gankui is the standard dialect. It is spoken by the

Oroqen people The Oroqen people (; Mongolian: ; also spelt ''Orochen'' or ''Orochon'') are an ethnic group in northern China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. The Oroqen people are largely concent ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

(predominantly the

Oroqin Autonomous Banner Oroqen Autonomous Banner ( Mongolian: , ''Orčon-u öbertegen jasaqu qosiɣu'', Mongolian Cyrillic: Орчон өөртөө засах хошуу; Simplified Chinese: 鄂伦春自治旗, Pinyin: ''Èlúnchūn Zìzhìqí'') is an autonomous ban ...

) and

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. 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 Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

as a literary language and some also speak Daur.

Geographic distribution

Oroqen is spoken in the following counties of China (''Ethnologue''). *

Heilongjiang province Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

Da Hinggan Ling The Greater Khingan Range or Da Hinggan Range (; IPA: ), is a -long volcanic mountain range in the Inner Mongolia region of Northeast China. It was originally called the Xianbei Mountains, which later became the name of the northern branch of th ...

Huma County Huma County (; Manchu: Hūmar Siyan; russian: Кумары) is a county in the far north of the Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China. The county seat is located on the right (southwestern) bank of the Amur River, a few kilometers ...

and

Tahe County Tahe () is a county in the far north of Heilongjiang province, and is the northernmost County (People's Republic of China), Chinese county. It is under the jurisdiction of Daxing'anling Prefecture. Administrative divisions Tahe County is divide ...

Heihe Heihe (; ; Russian: Хэйхэ) is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province, China, located on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River, across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census, 1,2 ...

: Xunke County ** Yichun:

Jiayin County Jiayin County () is a county in Heilongjiang Province, China, bordering Russian oblasts of Amur and Jewish. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yichun and the county seat is Chaoyang Town () situated on the southern ...

and Heihe City *

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

Hulunbuir Hulunbuir or Hulun Buir ( mn, , ''Kölün buyir'', Mongolian Cyrillic: Хөлөнбуйр, ''Khölönbuir''; zh, s=呼伦贝尔, ''Hūlúnbèi'ěr'') is a region that is governed as a prefecture-level city in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China. ...

Oroqen Autonomous Banner Oroqen Autonomous Banner ( Mongolian: , ''Orčon-u öbertegen jasaqu qosiɣu'', Mongolian Cyrillic: Орчон өөртөө засах хошуу; Simplified Chinese: 鄂伦春自治旗, Pinyin: ''Èlúnchūn Zìzhìqí'') is an autonomous ban ...

Dialects

* Birarchen * Kumarchen * Orochen * Selpechen (in

) * Gankui (in

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

Phonology

Consonants

* Allophones of /x/ are heard as � * A bilabial /ɸ/ can also be heard as a labio-dental * A rhotic trill /r/ tends to sound as a tap � when occurring word-finally.

Vowels

* /ə, əː/ are often heard as lower sounds �, ɐː * Short allophones of /o, u/ are heard as �, ʉ

Notes

External links

Oroqen Vocabulary List
(from the World Loanword Database)
Oroqen Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh list appendix

from Omniglot {{DEFAULTSORT:Oroqen Language Agglutinative languages Languages of China Tungusic languages Endangered languages stub