Manchu

[anonymoose]

I'm not sure if this counts as non-mandarin 'Chinese', but I thought it may be of interest to some of you.

Anyway this article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/world/asia/18manchu.html) describes the demise of Manchu langauge, and how there are only 18 speakers left, all over 80 years of age. The page also contains a video clip of one of these last speakers talking and singing in Manchu.

[<<恒心>>]

I did my M.A. thesis on the influence of Manchu/Qing policies on race/national minorities and the influence it had on post-revolution National minority policy (surprisingly strong, actually.) Anyway, at that time, I got very curious about the Manchu language and literature. I didn't get too far with it as soon after the MA I began teaching, but I can guarantee that it is worlds away from Chinese linguistically. Very much an agglutinative language... the words are a real mouthful after Chinese! Also, given the state of the spoken language, there is a fair amount of uncertainty about proper pronunciation, so that's an additional challende for prospective learners.

Still, if anybody's interested in learning Manchu, it would be a sure-fire way to to distinguish yourself in any field. Fame awaits you. In history, there are only a few big names-- Pamela Crossley, Mark Elliot, and Edward J.M. Rhoads come to mind. The standard assumption has been that since the Qing dynasty produced records in Manchu, Chinese, and Mongolian, that all versions of these trilingual documents were the same. The above scholars have found that this is not the case...in particular when it comes to the Manchu versions. But they have only scratched the surface, so who knows what remains to be discovered?

Anyway, I can recommend the only Manchu textbook I know of: "Manchu: A Textbook for Reading Documents" by Gertraude Roth Li, University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. If nothing else, it has practice exercises and readings, along with material to help make it easier to read the signboards you see written in Manchu at historical places such as temples, palaces, etc. So it's practical, too! Much more useful than learning how to say "tandem Carolus sigillum carte nove apposuit et celeriter finem de tribus libris solvit." or whatever.

[randall_flagg]

Manchu was actually taught at my home university until last semester...

[<<恒心>>]

Where's that? I know Li is at Hawai'i, and Elliot is at UCSB...Crossley, I forget...

[horas]

*

The 18 last native speakers of the community of Sanjizi in Hei lung jiang. It's rather sad when one thinks that there are still 10 million of ethnic Manchus in Mainland China.

Any ethnic Manchu here who can explain why the Manchus apparently loath to preserve their own culture?

[25860]

Any ethnic Manchu here who can explain why the Manchus apparently loath to preserve their own culture?

I don't think you need an Ethnic Manchu person to explain the decline. Simply put, it is a historical process. Qing Dynasty was Manchu based so when the dynasty ended, attention placed on Manchus became lesser, moving along in time right into the present day.