Xibe and the Manchuric languages

Abstract

Xibe is a language spoken by about 30,000 people in Northwestern China. Xibe is closely related to the nearly extinct Manchu language, and both languages belong to the southwestern branch of the Tungusic language family.This chapter provides a structural description of Xibe in relation to written Manchu, focusing especially on the prototypically Transeurasian features. Xibe has a distinct spoken and written register, and written Xibe is known as written Manchu. Spoken Xibe is found to have all but one of the prototypically Transeurasian features (Robbeets 2017g). The exceptional feature is the presence of tongue-root vowel harmony that is found in written Manchu. In spoken Xibe, topic marker and possessive/definite nominal suffix are found that are absent in written Manchu. Spoken Xibe also has a conjunct/disjunct contrast in the finite verbs. This last feature is not typically found in Transeurasian languages.