tungusic

Tungusic refers to a small language family of Northern Asia, consisting of about a dozen languages spoken by Indigenous peoples in Siberia, the Russian Far East, and parts of northeastern China. The family is commonly divided into Northern Tungusic and Southern Tungusic branches. Northern Tungusic languages include Evenki (Evenk), Even, and Negidal, among others; Southern Tungusic languages include Manchu, Xibe, Nanai, Hezhen, and Udehe (Udihe), with some classifications grouping Udehe with Nanai. The exact internal classification varies among researchers.

Geographically, Tungusic languages are distributed across a broad area from central Siberia to the Amur region and Heilongjiang province in China, with communities in Russia's Far East. This spread reflects long-standing migratory and trading histories in the region, as well as ongoing contact with neighboring language families such as Mongolic and Turkic.

Writing systems differ by language and country. In Russia, most Tungusic languages use Cyrillic alphabets developed for local use. In China, several languages have state-designed orthographies that may be influenced by Chinese or other scripts. Historically, Manchu had its own vertical script derived from the Old Mongolian script, which is now rarely used but remains a symbol of the language’s linguistic heritage.

Linguistically, Tungusic languages are generally agglutinative and typically have a subject–object–verb (SOV) order, with rich verbal morphology and varying degrees of noun case marking. They have been influenced by contact with Mongolic and Turkic languages and, in some cases, inward language contact within the region.

Most Tungusic languages are endangered, with only small speaker communities remaining for many. Some, such as Manchu and Xibe, have relatively larger communities in China and ongoing revival efforts, while others depend on language maintenance programs, education, and documentation to prevent further decline.