Manchu alphabet

Origin

The Manchu alphabet was commissioned in 1599 by the Manchu leader Nurhaci (1559-1626), the founder of the Manchu state. The letters are based on the Classical Mongolian alphabet while the phonetics are based on Jurchen, an earlier Manchu script. The alphabet was modified slightly in 1632.

In 1644 the Manchus conquered China and established the Ch'ing (Qing) dynasty, which lasted until 1911. For the first 200 years or so of the Ch'ing dynasty, Manchu was the main language of government in China and served as a lingua franca. By the mid 19th century many of the Manchus had adopted Chinese as their first language, however they continued to produce Manchu version of Chinese documents until the end of the dynasty and for sometime afterwards.

Notable features

Manchu is written in vertical columns running from top to bottom and from left to right.
Most letters have several different forms: initial, medial and final, which are used at the beginning, middle and end of a word respectively. The vowels also have isolated forms.
Some letters have different shapes depending on which vowel comes before and/or after them.

Used to write

Manchu, a member of the Tungusic group of Altaic languages. There are currently about 9 million Manchus living in north-eastern China, of whom about 100 speak Manchu and only 20 can read and write it. Most speak only Mandarin.

In Xinjiang in the west of China there are about 27,000 people known as Sibe, Xibo or Sibo who speak a language closely related to Manchu, though they consider themselves a separte ethnic group. The Sibe were moved to the region in 1764 by the Ch'ing emperor Qianlong.

Manchu alphabet

Vowels

Manchu Vowels

Consonants

Manchu consonants

Numerals

Manchu numerals and numbers

Sample text

Manchu text sample

Links

Manchu fonts for Mac are available from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/manchufont/
http://www.xenotypetech.com

Manchu in Unicode
http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Test/Manchu.html

满文输入工具 (Manchu Script Creator) - converts Romanized text to the Manchu script and lessons in how to write Manchu, a dictionary and other material
http://www.anaku.cn/

Online Manchu forum with lessons (in Chinese)
http://manchusky.qq.topzj.com

Other alphabets

Armenian, Avestan, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Coptic, Cyrillic, Elbsan, Etruscan, Fraser, Georgian (Asomtavruli & Nuskha-khucuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Hungarian Runes, Irish, Kayah Li, Korean, Latin, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Meroïtic, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Old Italic, Old Permic, Orkhon, Pollard Miao, Runic, Santali, Somali, Sutton SignWriting, Tai Dam, Thaana, Uyghur