Tungusic languages
Quick Summary
The Manchu-Tungus languages, also known as Tungusic, comprise a group of 10 to 17 languages spoken by fewer than 70,000 people across northern China, Mongolia, and Russia. These languages are part of the Altaic language group, though the genetic relationship of Altaic languages is debated among linguists.1234
Historically, the Manchu-Tungus peoples lived in fishing communities or as nomadic hunters and herders, leading to extensive dialect differentiation. The oldest attested Manchu-Tungus language is Juchen, spoken by the founders of the Jin dynasty. Manchu, the language of the Qing dynasty, is also a member of this family but is now moribund.1
The vitality of all Manchu-Tungus languages is declining due to assimilation policies and the dominance of Russian and Chinese. Linguistically, the family is often divided into Southern (Manchu) and Northern (Tungus) branches, though some languages exhibit characteristics of both.1
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