Udege language

The Udege language (also Udihe language, Udekhe language, Udeghe language) is the language of the Udege people. It is a member of the Tungusic family.

Udege
Удиэ
Native toRussia
RegionRussian Far East
Ethnicity1,500 Udeges (2010 census)[1]
Native speakers
100 (2010 census)[1]
Tungusic
  • Udegheic
    • Udege Group
      • Udege
Language codes
ISO 639-3ude
Glottologudih1248
ELPUdege[2]

Vocabulary

Udege contains a variety of loanwords from the closely related Nanai language, which have supplanted some older Udege vocabulary, such as:

  • [banixe] (thank you), from Nanai [banixa], instead of Udege [usasa]
  • [dœlbo] (work), from Nanai [dœbo], instead of Udege [etete]
  • [daŋsa] (book) from Nanai [daŋsa], itself a loanword from Chinese 檔子 (Pinyin: dāngzi), which actually means "file, records, archives"

In general, a large degree of mutual assimilation of the two languages has been observed in the Bikin region. Udege has also exerted phonological influence on the Bikin dialect of Nanai, including monophthongisation of diphthongs, denasalisation of nasal vowels, deletion of reduced final vowels, epenthetic vowels preventing consonant final words, and the deletion of intervocalic [w].[3]

Orthography

1931-1937 alphabet

A a Ā ā B в Є є D d Ӡ ӡ E e Ē ē
Æ æ F f G g H h I i Ī ī J j K k
L l M m N n Ņ ņ Ŋ ŋ O o Ō ō Ө ө
P p R r S s T t U u Ū ū W w X x
Y y Z z ’

Udege is currently written in two versions of the Cyrillic alphabet, known as the "Petersburg" and the "Khabarovsk" versions. The Khabarovsk version is used more often.[4]

Cyrillic alphabet (Khabarovsk version)

А а ʻА ʻа А̄ а̄ А̂ а̂ Б б В в Г г Ғ ғ Д д Ӡ ӡ И и Ӣ ӣ И̂ и̂
Й й К к Л л М м Н н Њ њ Ӈ ӈ О о ʻО ʻо О̄ о̄ О̂ о̂ П п Р р
С с Т т У у Ӯ ӯ У̂ ŷ Ф ф Х х Ч ч ь Э э ʻЭ ʻэ Э̄ э̄ Э̂ э̂

A few older letters that were used in this language: Ж ж, З з, Љ љ, Ц ц, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, ‘Ы ‘ы, Ы̄ ы̄, Ы̂ ы̂, Ю ю, ‘Ю ‘ю, Ю̄ ю̄, Ю̂ ю̂, Я я, ‘Я ‘я, Я̄ я̄, Я̂ я̂

Phonology

Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Close i iː y yːu uː
Mid ø øːə əː o oː
Open æ æː a aː

Consonants
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ
Fricative s x
Affricate voiceless t͡s
voiced d͡z~z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Liquid l
Approximant w j

/z/ is an allophone of /d͡z/.[5]

Notes
  1. Udege at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Udege.
  3. Nikolaeva & Tolskaya 2001, p. 24
  4. М. Д. Симонов, В. Т. Кялундзюга (1998). Словарь удэгейского языка (хорский диалект). Препринт. I. pp. 3–6, 59.
  5. Nikolaeva, Tolskaya. 2001.

Bibliography
  • Atknin, V.A.; Girfanova, A. (1985), "Отрицательные формы глаголов в удэгэйском языке (в сравнении с другими тунгусо-маньчжурскими языками)/The negative verbal forms in Udihe (in comparison with other Tungus-Manchu languages)", Лингвистические Исследования (1): 11–19
  • Nikolaeva, Irina; Tolskaya, Maria (2001), A Grammar of Udihe, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-016916-4


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