The Ulch language, or ''Olcha'', is a
Tungusic language
The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the doz ...
spoken by the
Ulch people
The Ulch people, also known as Ulch or Ulchi, (russian: ульчи, obsolete ольчи; Ulch: , nani) are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who speak a Tungusic language known as Ulch. Over 90% of Ulchis live in Ulchsky District ...
in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
.
Phonology
Vowels
* Vowel length is also distributed.
Consonants
*
is a rare sound in native words.
* /β ɡ/ have allophones of
ɣ
* /k x/ can become uvularized as
χbefore vowels /a o/.
[Sunik, 1985]
Alphabet
In brackets are letters that are used in writing, though not officially included in the alphabet.
References
Bibliography
*
*Sunik, O. P. (1985). Ul'chskij jazyk: issledovanija i materialy. Leningrad: Nauka, Leningradskoe Otdelenie. 262pp.
External links
* ELAR archive o
Endangered Tungusic languages of Khabarovskij Kraj (including Ulcha)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulch Language
Agglutinative languages
Critically endangered languages
Languages of Russia
Tungusic languages
stub