Tungusic

American  

[toong-goo-zik] / tʊŋˈgu zɪk /

noun

1. a family of languages spoken or formerly spoken in Manchuria and central and SE Siberia, including Manchu, Evenki, Even, and languages of the Amur River region, as Nanay.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Tungusic or its speakers.

Tungusic British  

/ tʊŋˈɡʊsɪk /

noun

1. a branch or subfamily of the Altaic family of languages, including Tungus and Manchu

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adjective

1. of or relating to these languages or their speakers

Etymology

Origin of Tungusic

First recorded in 1865–70; Tungus + -ic

Example Sentences

For more than 100 years, linguists have debated when, where, and how a group of languages spoken today across central and eastern Asia, including those in the Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic families, emerged.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 10, 2021

Some linguists believe they sprang from the same source, but others say extensive borrowing between ancient languages explains why certain sounds, terms, and grammatical features are common among many tongues, from Turkish to Tungusic.

From Science Magazine • Nov. 10, 2021

This applies, however, principally to the Mandshu; other Tungusic dialects spoken, not in China, but in the original seats of the Mandshus, are even now beginning to develop grammatical forms.

From Lectures on The Science of Language by Müller, Max

Other Tungusic tribes belong to the Chinese empire, and are known by the name of Mandshu, a name taken after they had conquered China in 1644, and founded the present imperial dynasty.

From Lectures on The Science of Language by Müller, Max

None of the other Tungusic or north-east Siberian peoples possess any writing system except the Yukaghirs of the Yasachnaya affluent of the Kolymariver, who were visited in 1892 by the Russian traveller, S. Shargorodsky.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court