Oroch language

Endangered language of Far East Russia

Oroch
Орочи кэсэни
Native to	Russia
Region	Russian Far East
Ethnicity	527 Orochs (2021 census)^[1]
Native speakers	43; 28 (declared to be used in everyday life) (2021 census)^[1]
Language family	Tungusic Udegheic Oroch
Writing system	Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`oac`
Glottolog	`oroc1248`
ELP	Oroch
Oroch is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Oroch language is a critically endangered language spoken by the Oroch people in Siberia. It is a member of the southern group of the Tungusic languages and is closely related to the Nanai language and Udege language. It is or was spoken in the Khabarovsk Krai (Komsomolsky, Sovetskaya Gavan, and Ulchsky districts). The language is split into three dialects: Tumninsky, Khadinsky, and Hungarisky. At the beginning of the 21st century, a written form of the language was created. The Russian government and the scientific field disagree on whether the language is living or extinct.^[2] The Oroch language belongs to the southern subgroup of the Tungus-Manchu languages, which are part of the Altaic family of languages.

It is believed that the Oroch language is the closest to Nanai, because a significant group of Nanai (Evenki!) origin (Samagirs) joined the Orochs. Until the beginning of the 20th century, some researchers combined the Orochi with the Udege, considering them as close dialects. In the 1930s it was believed that the Udege language could be considered as a single standard language for both ethnic groups.

Genealogical and areal characteristics

According to the 2002 Census, there were 257 speakers of the Oroch language; however, this is known to be erroneous due to confusion with the similarly-named Orok language. According to the 2010 Census, there were eight speakers. However, according to researchers, by the late 1990s, even the oldest Orochi could only utter a few phrases. The Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Khabarovsk Krai stated that the last fluent speaker of the Oroch language died in 2008. In 2010, this association held a meeting of elderly Orochi, who together were able to remember only about 20 Oroch words, and could not count to ten.^[2]

Dialects

The Oroch dialects are (Perekhvalskaya 2022:234):^[3]

Koppi
Oroch Xadi
Tumnin

Orthography

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж
З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	Ӈ ӈ
О о	П п	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х
Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э
Ю ю	Я я

Phonology

Consonants

Oroch consonants^[4]
		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
Plosive	voiced	b	d	dʒ~ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless		s		x
Fricative	voiced	v			ɣ
Rhotic			r
Lateral			l
Approximant				j

Vowels

Oroch vowels^[5]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː ʊ ʊː
Mid		ə əː	ɔ ɔː
Open	æː	a aː

Oroch has a system of vowel harmony based on the presence or absence of retracted tongue root (RTR).^[6]


Neutral	[–RTR]	[+RTR]
i iː	u uː	ʊ ʊː ɔ ɔː
æː	ə əː	a aː

References

^ ^a ^b Oroch at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Е. В. Перехвальская (2016). Язык и общество. Энциклопедия [Language and society. Encyclopedia // Oroch language] (PDF) (in Russian). М.: Азбуковник. pp. 339–342/872. ISBN 978-5-91172-129-9.
^ Perekhvalskaya, Elena (2022). "From consonant to tone: Laryngealized and pharyngealized vowels in Udihe". In Hölzl, Andreas; Payne, Thomas E. (eds.). Tungusic languages: past and present. Berlin. pp. 227–263. ISBN 978-3-96110-395-9. OCLC 1356978751.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Avrorin (2001)
^ Avrorin & Boldyrev (2001)
^ Tolskaya, Inna (2014). "Oroch Vowel Harmony". Lingua. 138: 128–151. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2013.10.012.

Bibliography

Abramova, G. S. (2002). Illustrated Dictionary of the Oroch Language (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Drofa.
Avrorin, V. A. (В. А. Авронин); Boldyrev, B. V. (Б. В. Болдырев) (2001). Grammatika orochskogo yazyka Грамматика орочского языка [An Oroch grammar] (in Russian). Novosibirsk: SO RAN. ISBN 5-7692-0396-X.
Альбина Гирфанова (1994). "Орочский язык". Контактологический энциклопедический словарь-справочник: Северный регион. Языки народов Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока в контактах с русским языком. М. (1). (in Russian)