| 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. |