ManchuTungusic

Manchu-Tungusic is a language family of East Asia, comprising two main branches: Northern Tungusic and Southern Tungusic. It includes languages spoken across eastern Siberia, the Russian Far East, and northeastern China. The best known language is Manchu, the language of the Qing dynasty, which is now nearly extinct, though a revival has begun. Xibe (Sibe) remains spoken in Xinjiang and is more widely used in some communities. Other Northern Tungusic languages include Evenki and Oroqen; Southern Tungusic includes Manchu and Xibe (and a few lesser-known varieties).

The languages are generally agglutinative and suffixing, with relatively flexible word order and rich inflection for case, number, mood, and tense. They share features such as extensive noun and verb morphology and limited use of tone.

Linguistic classification: Manchu-Tungusic has historically been linked to the proposed Altaic family, but there is no consensus for such a connection. Most contemporary linguists treat Tungusic as its own family, with uncertain or disputed relationships to Turkic and Mongolic.

Writing systems and status: The Manchu script, a vertical writing system derived from Mongolian, is historically associated with the family. In modern use many languages in the family use adapted Cyrillic or Latin scripts, or scripts derived from Manchu for study and revitalization. Several Tungusic languages are endangered, with small speaker populations; ongoing documentation, education, and revitalization efforts aim to preserve them.