Comments on: Let’s study Möllendorff! 01

By: Echoes of Manchu » The Book of the Nisan Shaman 10

Echoes of Manchu » The Book of the Nisan Shaman 10 — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:32:25 +0000

[...] is another instance of noun + pronoun apposition, like we found in Möllendorff with deo bi (search that page for “deo bi”). These two instances are notable because [...]

By: manjuniyalma

manjuniyalma — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:39:14 +0000

I totally agree with what you said about Roth Li’s “Manchu: a textbook for reading documents” (or MTRD as you call it). It is an excellent book. Though it was not meant to be an organized grammar textbook, there are numerous useful and helpful notes on grammar scattered throughout the book.

I bought this book three years ago. It is my first Manchu textbook and also the only one that I could find back then.

By: p

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:34:51 +0000

ere bithe oci, ambala baniha, bucin agu!
sini blog umesi sain aimaka, damu bi majar gisun muterakû, alban halan akû. si inggiri gisun gisureme muterakûn, eici gisureki serakûn?
(hope i didn’t massacre the language too much:-))

By: bucin

bucin — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:41:24 +0000

hojo nio?

gorelova i araha manju gisun tacikv bithe be ubaci [ http://xinio.info/?http://ifile.it/wicg9k4/9004123075.zip jai http://www.filefactory.com/file/1cbc74/n/9004123075_zip ] bahara mutembi!
sain hvlaki!
acaki
bucin

(mini gucu Randy, minde oncodo! bi tumen aniyaci onggolo jasigan araha akv bi te monggo gurunde ombi!

By: FM

FM — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:25:27 +0000

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned on the site before or not, but there’s a short, user-friendly introduction to Manchu available as a wikitextbook:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Manchu

It should be substantially easier to start with it and then move on to Herr Moellendorff.

Randy, I’ll send you a note shortly at your gmail address re other materials of possible interest.

By: p

Thu, 14 May 2009 17:56:35 +0000

“Short course…” uses û and š and I like it better than v and x, in “Język mandżurski” author’s own romanization is used, x stands for h, č for c, ž for j, and j for y, rest is the same as at Möllendorf’s. In both Latin grammatical nomenclature is used.
(Of course I didn’t expect you to speak Polish
I’ll send you an e-mail with the table of contents and when I have a little more time I’ll type the “Nišan saman-i bithe” excerpt and try to translate the grammar notes and the full text (which, I think, will need some corrections), and then you could post it here, on the blog.
Mr Tulisow has also written a book in two volumes called “Legendy ludów Mandżurii” (Legends of the peoples of Manchuria), but unfortunately I can’t find it anywhere.

By: Randy Alexander

Randy Alexander — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:35:32 +0000

@p: No, I didn’t know that book. But now I see it in Möllendorff’s bibliography. It looks very interesting. I’ll have to spend some time with it. Thank you.

As far as detailed information about the other books, sure, as long as it’s in English. (I can’t read a word of Polish.) I’m especially interested in the Nixan Saman exerpt.

Does the romanization in those books use v and x, or macron u and hacek s?

By: Randy Alexander

Randy Alexander — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:07:10 +0000

@Roynda: I will email you and we’ll work something out. I would be happy to help.

But, if his native language is really Manchu, that would be pretty extraordinary because the only people that I’ve been able to track down who are real native speakers are all over 80 years old. (See my posts on Sanjiazi, especially the earlier ones.)

There is another Manchu-speaking ethnic minority called Sibe (or Xibe, Sibo, Xibo). They were originally from Manchuria and were stationed in Xinjiang province and developed a colony there. They have about 20,000 or so speakers supposedly, but I don’t think that they have any speakers who only speak Manchu as they are all taught in Chinese in school.

Anyway, you’ll have to find out more about him and let us know!

By: Roynda Storey

Roynda Storey — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:32:44 +0000

I teach high school freshman English in a small town in north Texas. I just learned yesterday that I’ll be getting a student in August whose native language is Manchu. I would like to get hold of some stories or books in Manchu (better yet, bilingual editions) for him to use during our independent reading time. Do you have contact information for the bookstore you wrote about in March, or any way to share a copy of some of your children’s stories? I’m at roynda_storey@allenisd.org.

By: p

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:17:50 +0000

Hi
Do you know this book:
http://www.archive.org/details/translationsfrom00meadrich
It is a selection of Manchu texts with translations, but unfortunately not a word about grammar, except a short introduction which actually says nothing I wouldn’t have already known.
Speaking about books: I have two books on Manchu in Polish (I was really astonished when I found a Manchu grammar in my mother tongue!), both written by dr Jerzy Tulisow: “Krótki kurs języka mandżurskiego” (A short course in the Manchu language) and “Język mandżurski” (The Manchu Language). The first one is a textbook divided into 21 lessons, each with exercises, then there are short 5 texts and a wordlist. The latter one is a detailed description of every aspect of the language: writing system, phonology, morphology, syntax etc., there is also an excerpt from „Nixan saman-i bithe” with grammatical translation, kind of what you gave above. So maybe I can provide some detailed informations on the matters you are especially interested in, just tell me what exactly you would like to know. Or shall I send you the table of contents?