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) 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 ...

in Northeast China. 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 (''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 provinc ...

** Da Hinggan Ling: Huma County 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 ...

: Xunke County ** Yichun: Jiayin County 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:

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