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[[File:Ryukyu-qing-seal.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The royal seal of the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] during the [[Qing Dynasty]], showing Chinese (琉球國王之印) in [[seal script]] on the right, and an inscription in the Manchu language on the left.]]

[[File:Ryukyu-qing-seal.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The royal seal of the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]] during the [[Qing Dynasty]], showing Chinese (琉球國王之印) in [[seal script]] on the right, and an inscription in the Manchu language on the left. As reproduced in ''Ryûkyû kokuô sappô no zu'', handscroll, date unknown, University of Hawaii Collection.]]

The Manchu language was one of the two official languages of China's [[Qing Dynasty]], being used alongside Chinese on most, if not all, official documents.

The Manchu language was one of the two official languages of China's [[Qing Dynasty]], being used alongside Chinese on most, if not all, official documents.

The language evolved as a purely oral language, only first becoming a written language in [[1599]], when the [[Mongolian language|Mongolian script]] was adopted. Written vertically, the Mongolian script evolved out of the [[Uighur]] language (also written vertically), which in turn derived from [[Sogdian]] (written horizontally), which in turn came originally out of Aramaic. Thus, while Manchu and Mongolian both are, of course, quite far removed from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and other European & Middle Eastern languages which also share Aramaic roots, Manchu and Mongolian can nevertheless be said to be all but completely unrelated to Chinese.

The language evolved as a purely oral language, only first becoming a written language in [[1599]], when the [[Mongolian language|Mongolian script]] was adopted. Written vertically, the Mongolian script, devised in [[1269]], was based on the [[Uighur]] language (also written vertically), which derived from [[Sogdian]] (written horizontally), which in turn came originally out of Aramaic. Thus, while Manchu and Mongolian both are, of course, quite far removed from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and other European & Middle Eastern languages which also share Aramaic roots, Manchu and Mongolian can nevertheless be said to be all but completely unrelated to Chinese.

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